EyeRate, the developer of reputation management software that pays retail employees for good customer reviews, has raised $4 million in a seed round of venture capital funding led by Moneta Ventures.
Founded in a garage in Elk Grove in 2019, EyeRate has more than 2,500 businesses and 58,000 employees on its platform.
EyeRate will use the money "to continue to scale out the team and the product," EyeRate co-founder and CEO Ray Weisberg told the Business Journal.
The company has grown to 49 employees, and it had revenue last year of about $5 million. The new funding should help EyeRate triple its revenue this year, Weisberg said.
“EyeRate is creating a brand new category of business around employee-driven growth,” said Sabya Das, a partner with Folsom-based Moneta Ventures. “We’re excited to back Ray and his team, and a company that has a track record of highly capital-efficient growth, a product strategy that is truly differentiated from current offerings, and a very viable path being both a category leader and profitable, which is remarkable for such a young business."
In the summer of 2021, EyeRate raised $1.7 million in an investment round led by Santa Monica-based early-stage investor Mucker Capital. EyeRate also received a $100,000 investment in 2020 as a graduate of Jason Calacanis’ San Francisco-based startup incubator The Launch Accelerator.
Other investors in this $4 million round included existing investors Mucker Capital, The Launch Accelerator and its founder Calacanis.
The Rocklin-based Growth Factory was also an investor in the new round. EyeRate was in the second cohort of the Growth Factory's accelerator program last year. And last April, EyeRate won the $10,000 top prize in the Sacramento Kings Capitalize startup contest.
The company was founded, and continues to focus its work, to get front-line employees more money by rewarding them for good service, Weisberg said.
Elk Grove-based EyeRate has more than 58,000 employees on its platform. To date, the company has helped those employees earn over $1.7 million in extra money, Weisberg said. On average, employees can earn an additional $25 to $50 per month for generating good reviews. EyeRate’s platform also can run sales competitions for its client customers or brands.
Last year, EyeRate was recognized as the honoree in the software category of the Sacramento Region Innovation Awards by the Sacramento Business Journal.
