Cleveland Organization Joins Forces with CincyTech to Support a SaaS Company Built by HR Leaders for HR Leaders, Linking the Employee Experience to Company Performance

Cleveland-based venture development organization, JumpStart Inc. is announcing an investment in Talmetrix, a Cincinnati-based software-as-a-service (SaaS) company that turns HR metrics into actionable data to boost business results. Talmetrix helps employers measure and improve the employee experience, and then integrates workforce insights with HR data that’s often kept separate, such as payroll data, training records and performance reviews.

The investment comes from JumpStart’s $10 million Focus Fund. It reaches across the state to strengthen a growing company in the portfolio of CincyTech, JumpStart’s sister organization in Southwest Ohio. The specific terms of the deal are not being released.

“Increasingly organizations are capturing and analyzing employee feedback to improve customer satisfaction and talent retention, and our software makes it faster and easier than ever to do so,” said Talmetrix CEO Chris Powell. “This investment from JumpStart will help us ramp up our sales efforts and continue growing our company right here in Ohio.”

Talmetrix’s cloud-based software platform enables organizations to easily capture employee feedback and link that data to other important business metrics. The resulting insights can help organizations improve employee engagement, retention, productivity, innovation and culture.

JumpStart and CincyTech are both leading entrepreneurial support organizations in their regions, who are dedicated to fueling startup growth throughout Ohio. Both organizations are also partners of the Ohio Third Frontier’s Entrepreneurial Signature Program (ESP), which provides entrepreneurs with private and public funding, as well as assistance to grow their technology-based startup companies.

“Talmetrix’s ability to pair employee surveying with other key business intelligence to create actionable plans for their clients makes them a unique and exciting SaaS company,” said Rem Harris, JumpStart’s senior partner in charge of investing. “Chris and his team are building a company that can become an industry leader in a rapidly growing market. We are happy to be able to work together with a respected investor like CincyTech to fund the company’s next growth phase and in the process help it to achieve important milestones.”

“The JumpStart Focus Fund investment helps Talmetrix to continue to build out capabilities in the software to deliver additional business insights to the customer. These are human resources metrics that are directly and meaningfully connected to key business results,” said Doug Groh, Director at CincyTech. “JumpStart also provides sound guidance as well as connections to many businesses in Northeast Ohio who are top customer and partner prospects for Talmetrix.”

JumpStart’s Focus Fund invests specifically in minority and/or female-led companies throughout Ohio. This is the fund’s second full investment, and it has also made smaller validation investments in five additional Ohio startups. To learn more about the Focus Fund, and JumpStart’s other funding vehicles, visit www.jumpstartinc.org/funding/investments.

JUMPSTART INC. unlocks the full potential of diverse and ambitious entrepreneurs to economically transform entire communities. For more information, follow @JumpStartInc on Twitter.

CINCYTECH transforms innovation into high performing life science and digital companies in Southwest Ohio. For more information, visit cincytechusa.com and follow @Cincy_Tech on Twitter.

TALMETRIX is re-inventing how talent-focused organizations and their employees work together to fuel a culture of high performance. For more information, visit www.talmetrix.com and follow @Talmetrix on Twitter.