Employee burnout is at an all-time high. According to a 2022 Gallup Global Workforce Report, 44 percent of workers globally report feeling stressed or burnout. That number is likely much higher, as many cases of burnout go unreported.
One company hoping to help reduce employee stress is Blossom, an early-stage startup offering data-driven career coaching to organizations and their workers. The company announced exclusively to Built In that it raised $1.5 million in seed funding led by angel investor and Night Capital founder Kevin Carter.
Blossom makes professional coaching scalable and measurable through science-backed techniques and advanced analytics. The platform uses artificial intelligence (AI) to make ideal matches between clients and coaches. Once matched, AI augments the benefits of coaching by measuring progress through various metrics and uncovering growth opportunities, unconscious biases and strengths. Blossom’s AI is also able to suggest certain exercises based on the client’s personal growth journey.
“Blossom brings to bear decades of scientific research across 22+ fields — [such as] positive psychology, behavioral science, etc. — to unlock and enable a data-driven approach to professional coaching and growth,” Blossom CEO and co-founder Ahmad Kakar told Built In via email. “Our view is it takes more than just putting two people in a ‘room.’ By uniquely and consistently leveraging rigorous and scientifically-backed methodologies we are able to do what others can’t. We can provide a product that leads to measurable progress in the goals that professionals set for themselves.”
So far the approach seems to be working. The company says its users experience a 42 percent improvement in their stress and wellbeing in just the first eight weeks of usage. The platform also has a 80 percent engagement rate from users within the first month of signing up.
“We’re building Blossom because we spend over one-third of our lives at work and we all deserve better than stress, burnout and tedium. People are looking for a change in their day-to-day lives; this funding represents support for that cause,” Kakar said in a statement.
The funding will be used to accelerate product development, hire new talent and continue the enhancement of the Blossom’s algorithms. Some of the product development Blossom has planned include further development of its AI.
