PerformYard, founded a decade ago to make the employment performance management process easier for companies and managers alike, has scored its first major outside investment.
Updata Partners made a $95 million equity investment in the Arlington company, per a Monday announcement. Carter Griffin, a general partner with the D.C. growth equity firm, will join PerformYard's board.
The company was launched in 2013 by Ben Hastings and Jon Malpass and has persevered with $3 million in seed funding since then, including an investment from the Center for Innovative Technology, which is today called the Virginia Innovation Partnership Corp.
PerformYard has been on a growth spurt lately, growing revenue five times over in the last four years, according to the announcement. The company did not provide specific revenue numbers. Clients include Paytronix, Berkshire Grey, Visit Philadelphia and Mitsubishi Chemical America.
"Ben and his team have performed exceptionally well over a number of years," Griffin said. "With PerformYard we see an opportunity to win in a large and important category. We are excited to help further scale the company."
Hastings told technology news site TechCrunch that the company will use the investment to build out PerformYard's apps and services and grow its workforce of 70.
“The investment brings with it a partner in Updata that we are aligned with and will enable even faster growth as we enter new customer segments and build new products,” Hastings told TechCrunch in an email interview. “PerformYard has been cash-flow positive with attractive unit economics for the majority of our existence as a business.”
The Business Journal featured the company as a startup to watch in 2016. At the time, Hastings told us the company didn't aspire to be a one-stop HR shop, but planned to keep focused on performance management. Hastings, who had worked for MicroStrategy, Touchstone Consulting and several startups, funded the launch himself.
