AI-powered time intelligence platform Laurel announced on Monday that it’s receiving a strategic investment from Workday Ventures, the $500 million investment arm of Workday focused on identifying, investing, and partnering with early to growth stage companies.
The amount of the outside investment wasn’t disclosed.
As part of the Workday Ventures’ investment, Laurel will become a Workday Innovation Partner, joining a community of innovators delivering AI capabilities to customers.
“The investment affirms Laurel’s position as a leading platform transforming how professional services firms capture and leverage time data to drive business value,” the San Francisco-based company said in an Aug. 11 media release.
Laurel raised a $100 million Series C in June, and this is the first time that Workday has officially been recognized as an investor, the website Legal IT Insider reported.
Founded in 2018, Laurel says its mission is to help companies and workers reclaim time. Its AI-powered time platform, used by hundreds of enterprise professional services firms, including Big Four accounting firm EY and top 10 accounting firm Grant Thornton, automatically captures, categorizes, and analyzes how time is spent across work activities. By linking time data to business outcomes, Laurel enables firms to optimize workforce productivity, maximize profitability, and allocate resources more effectively, the company says.
“We’re thrilled to be joining the Workday Innovation Partner network,” Kourosh Zamani, co-founder and head of partnerships at Laurel, said in a statement. “Workday’s focus on shaping the future of work aligns with our mission to make time more valuable for professionals and their organizations.”
“AI has the potential to revolutionize how organizations manage time so that their people are focused on the most strategic work, helping drive better employee satisfaction and productivity,” added Barbry McGann, managing director and senior vice president of Workday Ventures. “We are excited to invest in and partner with Laurel, supporting their mission of innovating to help customers make the most out of their employees’ time, delivering real value for businesses.”
Laurel says that customers using its platform report up to 80% reductions in manual time entry and gain an average of 28 reclaimed billable minutes per day, per professional, which translates into 4% to 11% gains in profitability. Laurel’s ROI methodology has been independently audited and validated by a Big Four firm, the company says.
The platform currently processes more than $5 billion in gross market value for its customers, and more than $360 million of that amount is net-new value attributable to Laurel. In addition, Laurel saves its professionals up to 80% in time recording, freeing them to work on more strategic work, the company says.
“At Laurel, we believe AI can help support people in doing their best work, reducing time spent on administrative tasks so they can focus on more strategic projects. That’s a win-win for companies and their employees,” said Ryan Alshak, co-founder and CEO of Laurel.
More information about Laurel can be found here.
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