Zavvy will become Deel Engage in the future. Around three years after founding the company, Joshua Cornelius and Mehmet Yilmaz sold their startup to the global HR platform Deel.
Zavvy founders Joshua Cornelius and Mehmet Yilmaz. Zavvy
Six years after receiving millions for their fitness app Freeletics, founders Mehmet Yilmaz and Joshua Cornelius have managed another exit. This time for her HR startup Zavvy. The two LMU alumni founded the learning, development and performance management platform in Munich in 2021. In three years, the startup has been able to win some medium-sized companies in Germany as customers with its platform for personnel development. These include TypeForm, Agile Robotics, Moss and Urban Sports Club.
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Exit for the Freeletics founders
Now Zavvy’s AI-powered technology is set to expand the product range of the global HR platform Deel. It has now been announced that the San Francisco-based company has acquired Zavvy. All Zavvy employees should move to the new owner. Details of the transaction price are not known. After completing seed financing in 2022, the Munich startup was worth around 18 million euros.
The seed round of €3.4 million was led by Berlin-based venture capitalist La Famiglia VC. Emerge Education, Picus Capital and several well-known business angels also took part in the round. These include Renaud Visage (co-founder of Eventbrite), Hanno Renner (co-founder and CEO of Personio) and Michael Wax (co-founder and CEO of Forto).
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With these ideas, former Personio employees started their own business
Zavvy becomes “Deel Engage”
Deel offers global employment solutions to companies, from onboarding to local payroll. Local labor law is applied in each country. Through the acquisition of Zavvy, Deel is developing a new product portfolio under the name “Deel Engage”. The product supports HR managers in all aspects of personnel management and talent development.