Iceland has made a name for itself in terms of women’s labour force participation in Europe. According to World Economic Forum reports, the country has been scoring the highest rates for a few years. Icelandic Empower comes forward with its SaaS solution to improve and promote equality, diversity & inclusion. It was founded by serial entrepreneurs and leading DE&I specialists Thorey Vilhjalmsdottir Proppe and Dee Thomsen. The women-led startup raises 2.2 million euros in its last funding round which was led by Frumtak Ventures with the participation of an early-stage angel investment firm Tennin. The funding will be an instrument for the startup to come up with new solutions and work on the existing ones.
Empower raises €2.2 million ($2.29m) in funding, led by Frumtak Ventures, to scale its proven DE&I solutions
Empower, a top Icelandic DE&I (Diversity, Equality & Inclusion) firm focused on equality in the workplace, today announced it has secured €2.2 million ($2.29m) in funding, led by Frumtak Ventures, a leading early-stage Icelandic VC firm. Tennin, an early-stage angel investment firm, also participated in the round. The funding will be used to scale its proven DE&I methodologies, including benchmarking, training and analytics services, through its new SaaS solution, Empower NOW.
Empower, founded by serial entrepreneurs and leading DE&I specialists Thorey Vilhjalmsdottir Proppe and Dee Thomsen, has worked with both government and private sector organizations, such as the country’s Parliament, police organizations, universities and leading international enterprises to uncover, address and correct workplace biases and toxic culture traits that impede their ability to attract and retain diverse talent, and create an equal, diverse and inclusive workplace.
“As we’ve seen with Iceland’s continued top ranking on Gender Equality, LBGTQIA+, peace and happiness indexes, the path to equality begins with acknowledgement of biases within the workplace, systems and society, and a willingness to change those workplaces, systems and society,” said Thorey Vilhjalmsdottir Proppe.
“Empower tackles these same challenges within government and private organizations, creating solutions that address the significant market gap within the HR software sector, by providing an integrated solution centered specifically on DE&I.”
“With this round of funding, we will expedite our journey, building out our team and new solutions to eliminate and mitigate the many challenges organizations face across the Nordic, North American and European markets.
We will leverage both our proven methodologies, as well as our new, comprehensive software solution, which includes a holistic dashboard complete with reporting systems, red flag monitors, action plan frameworks, goals and KPI tracking, as well as impactful training & micro learning content.” stated Dee Thomsen.
“We are proud of the positive social impact of this venture. It is imperative that organizations uncover and address the equality challenges that limit their success and the career successes of their employees, both for human and organizational health, as well as regulatory compliance,” said Svana Gunnarsdottir, Managing Partner, Frumtak Ventures.
“Empower’s founders deeply understand the needs of HR and DE&I managers, as well as the employees they recruit to these organizations, and are using this breadth of experience to inform the dashboards and toolkits their solution provides, helping to foster more equal and inclusive organizations globally.”
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Originally published on ArcticStartup : Original article