Priya patelTLDR:
- Seattle-based startup Avante has raised $10 million in a seed funding round led by Fuse Venture Partners.
- Avante is focused on building an employee intelligence platform to improve the lives of millions and is currently recruiting top talent for its team.
- The funding round is unusually large for the seed stage and comes at a time when startup funding is tightening.
A new Seattle-based startup called Avante has raised $10 million in a seed funding round, with participation from Fuse Venture Partners, Ascend.vc, HighSage Ventures, and angel investors. The funding will be used to build an employee intelligence platform with ambitions to “improve the lives of millions”. Avante’s executive chairman is Kabir Shahani, former CEO of marketing tech startup Amperity, and the founding team includes CEO Rohan D’Souza and head of product and data science Carly Eckert. Avante is currently in stealth mode and not providing specific details about its plans.
Avante’s mission is to empower healthier workforces, with a focus on improving employee wellbeing through advanced analytics and behavior change. The startup aims to tackle a $1 trillion+ dollar market and plans to recruit top talent to quadruple its core development team in the next 12 months. The company has already built a solid core team, led by Nick Cecil as head of engineering, and has expressed its commitment to making a massive economic impact for its customers.
The $10 million seed funding round is unusually large, given the current tight market for startup funding. Many angel investors and venture capitalists are focusing on established companies and proven entrepreneurs, making it more difficult for early-stage startups to secure funding. However, Avante’s spot-on assessment of the issue, its technical approach, and the strength and experience of its founding team are said to be the reasons behind the investors’ decision to fund the startup.
