We are excited to announce that Zeal Capital Partners has led the $8 million Series A financing round for Rising Team (Palo Alto, CA), a team development and performance platform that enables companies to increase employee engagement and retention, scale talent development, and improve culture and connection. The role of team development tools in today’s workplace is crucial for maintaining culture and profitability. We have strong conviction in the company’s mission and are excited to invest in Rising Team’s next stage of growth.
I am thrilled to join the board of directors and work closely with Jennifer Dulski, Founder & CEO of Rising Team. Jennifer brings over 25 years of experience leading teams at Google, Facebook, Yahoo!, and Change.org. Her track record includes:
• Leading Facebook Groups, used by more than 1.5 billion people each month to create and participate in communities that matter to them.
• Growing Change.org tenfold as COO, from 18 million users to 180 million, developing a profitable business model, rebuilding its tech stack, and supporting thousands of successful campaigns globally.
• Serving as Global Head of Product Management for Shopping & Product Ads at Google, where her work significantly enhanced the user experience.
The key drivers of high-performing teams are well-established: trust, psychological safety, feedback, and culture. While managers are the stewards of creating these conditions, they are often ill-equipped to do so. Rising Team fills this gap by providing a robust solution that supports both managers and teams in building these skills and practicing these behaviors sustainably and scalably.
Rising Team has demonstrated its potential to serve a wide range of professions, from probation officers and engineers to educators. Their strong initial Ideal Customer Profile (ICP) focuses on tech and financial service companies looking to stabilize culture amidst massive layoffs and evolving workplace norms like distributed teams and hybrid models. The Total Addressable Market (TAM) is estimated at $14 billion based on U.S. W2 workers at a price point of $10 per employee per month. The Serviceable Addressable Market (SAM) is $2.5 billion, based on U.S. workers in tech and financial services. Though market sizing was based on the U.S., Rising Team is already connecting workers globally.
Rising Team is a practical tool that empowers managers to lead better integrated, connected, and therefore, higher-performing teams. As a software solution that simultaneously interacts with managers and their team members, Rising Team is uniquely able to drive results affordably and at scale. By using Rising Team, both managers and individual team members become more engaged, more effective, and more likely to stay in their jobs long term
At Zeal Capital Partners, our firm is committed to scaling businesses that narrow skills gaps and enhance employee collaboration. Rising Team is executing this strategy by pioneering advancements in team performance software to empower middle managers and leaders at all levels. We have strong conviction in the company’s mission and are excited to invest in the company’s next stage of growth.
We are so excited to join this journey and help Rising Team scale to new heights. Together, we can make a significant impact on how teams perform and thrive in today’s dynamic work environment.