Gloat Lands $90 Million Investment from Generation, Al Gore’s VC Firm
Today Gloat, one of the leading players in the Talent Marketplace space, announced a $90 Million investment from Generation Investment Management, the firm led by Al Gore.
This story has two parts: first the large investment in Gloat, and second the thinking beyond a Sustainability fund investing in HR Tech.
Why Gloat Is So Highly Valued
I can’t speak to the valuation of Gloat, but $90 Million is a lot of money in this market. Why the strong support? Gloat is one of the leaders in a whole new industry of HR technology platforms. Gloat started with the mission of using AI to facilitate internal mobility. Today it is opening up its platform to be a system for skills and job architecture, career development, and what the company calls a “workforce agility platform.”
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I’ve talked with many Gloat customers and they all tell me the same thing: once this system is up and running the employees immediately love it. It is an “employee-centric” system, one that any employee can use to find a project, mentor, new role, or career path. Through a careful set of user interface design decisions and very well-engineered AI, Gloat is an easy-to-implement system that dramatically changes the way jobs are filled and careers work within a company.
I believe Gloat is one of the up-and-coming vendors (along with Eightfold, Beamery, Phenom, iCims, and a few others) that are data-driven, AI-centric systems designed to completely redesign how companies work. These platforms, which often start as single-use applications, become AI-enabled platforms that soon will obsolete many of the older talent platforms of the past. Eightfold and Gloat, for example, can automatically identify succession plans for any role in the company. Gloat, through its AI and career intelligence, can recommend roles, development paths, and careers.
If you don’t believe this is disruptive, read how Spotify “Ditched the List” and got rid of the 9-box grid, and how Wipro also uses AI for succession.
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One may think these are learning features but no, they’re much more. Unlike LXP platforms like EdCast (Cornerstone), Degreed, or Microsoft Viva, Gloat (and Eightfold and Fuel50) have “career intelligence” built-in and are designed to continuously get smarter as people take projects, move, and progress.
Gloat competes with vendors like Fuel50, Eightfold, Hitch (now owned by ServiceNow), Workday Talent Marketplace, and Oracle HCM Cloud. Despite the competition, however, the company is growing rapidly and leads the market among large implementations.
Why Generation Is Interested
The second part of the story is Generation Investment Management. Why would a firm that focuses on Sustainability invest in Gloat?
As Shalini Rao, the lead partner, discusses, they now see that “worker-centric strategies” are a key dimension of sustainability.
As I discuss in my new book Irresistible, the concept of “employee first” economics is finally taking hold. Our GWI research shows that companies are more dependent on employees than ever. The Generation team has now figured this out and they are starting to invest in “employee-centric” companies.
Along these themes, Generation has also invested in Gusto (a pioneer in employee-centric payroll and HCM), Guideline (low-cost 401k plans for small companies), and Asana (user-centric project management). While they are still new to the HR Tech space, they see the writing on the wall. This is “the era of the worker” and they believe Gloat can be a leader.
Gloat Will Accelerate Its Growth
While the market for AI-enabled platforms is crowded, I believe Gloat will continue to grow rapidly. The company has been laser-focused on the needs of large organizations and deeply understands the interconnectedness of these systems in large companies. Customers like Mastercard, Unilever, Schneider Electric, Pepsi, and Seagate have been thrilled with Gloat and I expect the company will continue with this momentum.
And regardless of the direction of the economy, internal mobility will continue to grow in importance. Companies need to intelligently move people into new roles and all employees want better career growth. Only with platforms like Gloat can you do this in a strategic and agile way.
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