Sana Raises Additional $28M Led by NEA to Build the Universal AI Platform for the EnterpriseSana, a company focused on building a universal AI platform for the enterprise, has secured an additional $28 million in funding, with NEA (New Enterprise Associates) leading the investment round. This infusion of funding will undoubtedly help Sana advance its mission of creating an AI platform that caters specifically to the needs of businesses.
The Swedish-born Sana scaleup becomes one of Europe’s most highly-funded AI companies with $62M in total Series B funding
May 31,2023 Sana, the leading AI-powered learning and knowledge platform, announced today it’s landed another $28m in an opportunistic investment round led by NEA. Workday Ventures also joined the round. With a combined total of $62m in Series B funding, the Swedish-born scaleup is now one of the most highly-funded AI companies.
Sana's mission is to augment human intelligence through artificial intelligence. To that end, the company has built a category-defining product that blends the best of enterprise search, a learning management system, meeting tools, and a knowledge management system into one single platform.
Underpinning this suite of tools is Sana AI, the company's latest release. Sana AI is an omnipresent assistant that can do everything from search across all your company's apps and take actions in response to natural language commands to generating real-time summaries of live meetings and creating entire learning courses from scratch, and writing SQL to query your data. In other words, it's like ChatGPT for your company's knowledge.
By augmenting an organization's ability to capture, organize, and access knowledge at every step through AI, Sana enables any team to move faster and be more productive—from sales and customer support teams to product specialists and software engineers.
"At Sana, we believe every organization's mission depends on the collective intelligence of its employees. That intelligence depends on knowledge, yet most institutional knowledge today is scattered across multiple tools, trapped in people's minds, and lost in verbal conversations. AI is the key to solving this problem at scale. By unlocking knowledge for every employee across any organization, we unlock global progress," said Joel Hellermark, founder and CEO of Sana. "We're thrilled to have the support from NEA and strategic investors like Workday Ventures on this mission."
Sana wasn’t looking for funding when NEA made its proactive offer. The scaleup had a healthy runway having closed a $34m Series B round led by Menlo Ventures last December. One of the reasons for the additional investor interest is commercial performance: Sana has grown its business 3x year over year.
NEA will be represented on Sana's board by CEO Scott Sandell and Managing Director Philip Chopin. Since joining NEA in 1996, Sandell has played a critical role in many industry-transforming businesses, including Robinhood, Salesforce, Tableau Software, and Workday.
"Sana's past track record and current trajectory are exceptional. Thanks to top talent, bold vision, and rare organizational alignment, we believe they've already built a world-class learning and knowledge platform. But what excites us most is where Sana is going next: indexing every form of an organization's functional data through LLMs to become the de-facto AI platform for the enterprise. The use cases for this type of product are endless," said Scott Sandell, CEO at NEA.
In addition to Sana's commercial growth and ambitious team, NEA was impressed by the level of customer advocacy. The platform is used by an impressive client roster of market-leading companies like Merck, Kry/Livi, and Svea Solar—all of whom praise Sana's superior user experience and product velocity.
"Since day one, we've been amazed at Sana's pace of innovation and commitment to addressing customer feedback. The platform is more than a tool—it's become Svea Solar’s home for learning and knowledge. We see the latest iteration of Sana AI as a productivity game-changer, " said Hanna Manberg, CHRO at Svea Solar.
With the additional funding, Sana will continue expanding its product development and commercial teams across Stockholm, London, and New York offices. Sana's headquarters will remain in Stockholm, where founder and CEO Joel Hellermark founded the company aged 19, six years after teaching himself to code in C.
"Joel is an exceptional founder. This Series B extension is a testament to his technical and commercial prowess and visionary leadership. As we enter the new age of artificial intelligence, we believe the Sana team is well positioned to become one of the world's most successful and impactful AI companies," said Philip Chopin, Managing Director at NEA UK.
About Sana
Sana is an AI-powered learning platform that empowers organizations to find, share, and harness the knowledge they need to achieve their missions. Backed by some of the world's leading investors, operators, and founders, Sana has raised more than $85m to date. The company's headquarters are in Stockholm, Sweden, with offices in London and New York. For more information, head to www.sanalabs.com.
About NEA
New Enterprise Associates, Inc. (NEA) is a global venture capital firm focused on helping entrepreneurs build transformational businesses across multiple stages, sectors and geographies. Founded in 1977, NEA has over $25 billion in assets under management, as of March 31, 2023 and invests in technology and healthcare companies at all stages in a company’s lifecycle, from seed stage through IPO. The firm's long track record of investing includes more than 270 portfolio company IPOs and more than 450 mergers and acquisitions. For more information, please visit www.nea.com.
资讯
2023年05月31日
资讯
Sana Raises $34M Series B to Transform the Way Organizations Learn Through AISana has raised $34 million in a Series B funding round to revolutionize the way organizations learn through AI. This funding round was led by Menlo Ventures, a venture capital firm. Existing investor EQT Ventures also joined the round with several founders and operators. This Series B funding round is a significant milestone for Sana, providing them with the necessary resources to scale their platform, refine their AI capabilities, and further drive innovation in the learning space.
Following 7x year-over-year growth, Menlo Ventures leads funding round to accelerate US expansion
Dec.13,2022 Sana, the leading AI-powered learning platform, announced the close of its $34M Series B led by Menlo Ventures. Existing investor EQT Ventures also joined the round with several founders and operators. Menlo Ventures’ partner JP Sanday joins the board as part of this round. This funding follows a 7x year-over-year increase in Annual Recurring Revenue (ARR).
Sana was founded with the vision of leveraging artificial intelligence to help organizations learn and share knowledge. To that end, Sana built a category-leading learning platform that enables organizations to consolidate their learning and capture, organize, and personalize all their institutional knowledge.
From personalized learning recommendations to an AI writing assistant that automatically generates content, Sana applies the latest breakthroughs in AI to enhance and optimize the entire learning and knowledge-sharing journey.
Sana's AI-powered semantic search empowers employees to get the knowledge they need from anywhere in their organization. The platform connects and indexes tools like Slack, Salesforce, Notion, LinkedIn Learning, and Google Workplace to provide employees with automatically generated answers in natural language. The result: an end-to-end platform that decreases onboarding time, improves sales efficiency, and grows and retains top talent.
"Now a $30 billion industry, the learning and development market has demanded more sophisticated tools. With a world-class product and incredible team, Sana is uniquely positioned to win the market. They offer two vital benefits to the historically underserved L&D category: the scalability and efficiency of artificial intelligence and the compelling experience of a consumer-grade product,” said JP Sanday, Partner at Menlo Ventures.
"The ambitious customers we serve—pioneers like Alan, Svea Solar, Kry/Livi, and Merck—are on a mission to change the world. Sana’s job is to accelerate their efforts by ensuring every employee has access to the right knowledge at the right time. By leveraging the power of AI, Sana can unlock organizational knowledge with unprecedented scale and speed, supercharging the organizations we serve,” said Joel Hellermark, founder and CEO of Sana.
Sana is now the home for knowledge and learning at digital health company Alan—consolidating a myriad of learning and productivity tools. Today, Alan uses Sana to onboard employees, train sales and customer support reps, and develop their leaders.
"Speed, transparency, and personal growth are key to Alan's culture, and Sana was the only provider able to deliver on all three. Since using the platform, we've decreased our ramp time while boosting learner engagement. We think Sana has set a new standard for what organizations expect from a learning platform. Their tech and UX have leapfrogged the industry," said Filip Lam, Head of People Growth at Alan.
With the new funding, Sana will extend its product development and expand its team across Stockholm, London, and New York offices. The headquarters will remain in Stockholm, where founder and CEO Joel Hellermark founded the company aged 19, six years after teaching himself to code in C.
“Joel’s visionary leadership, and his rare combination of being technically skilled and exceptionally ambitious, has enabled him to assemble a world-class team from some of the foremost tech companies. With learning as the foundation of human progress, we believe team Sana has the potential to play an important role in reimagining learning as we know it,” said Sandra Malmberg, Director at EQT Ventures.
"Our ambition is to build an internet-scale Library of Alexandria, where more than a billion people can learn about anything and share everything they know," said Hellermark. "We're thrilled to have the support of Menlo Ventures and previous backers on this mission."
About Sana
Sana is an AI-powered learning platform that empowers organizations to find, share, and harness the knowledge they need to achieve their missions. Backed by some of the world’s leading investors, operators, and founders, Sana has raised $54M to date. The company's headquarters are in Stockholm, Sweden, with offices in London and New York.
About Menlo Ventures
Menlo Ventures is a venture capital firm that strives to have a positive impact on everything we do. That’s why we support businesses including Benchling, Chime, Carta, Poshmark, Uber, and Roku that are reimagining life and work for the better. Over 43 years, we’ve grown a portfolio that includes more than 70 public companies, over 100 mergers and acquisitions, and $5.5 billion under management. We invest at every stage and in every sector, with expertise in Consumer, Enterprise, and Healthcare. From developing market strategies to creating communities, we provide real impact where entrepreneurs need it most. When we’re in, we’re all in. www.menlovc.com
资讯
2022年12月13日
资讯
美国总统拜登任命劳伦-麦克弗兰为全国劳工关系委员会主席
美国总统拜登任命劳伦-麦克弗兰为全国劳工关系委员会主席。McFerran自2014年12月起在该委员会任职。另据新闻报道,拜登解雇了NLRB的总顾问。
麦克弗兰在一份声明中说:"我期待着 全国劳工关系委员会 工作的新篇章,加倍努力为该法案的目标服务--'鼓励集体谈判的实践和程序,……保护工人行使充分的结社自由'。"
她的任期将于2024年12月到期。
在担任NLRB之前,McFerran是参议院健康、教育、劳工和养老金委员会的首席劳工顾问。她此前还曾在该委员会担任前爱荷华州参议员汤姆-哈金(Tom Harkin)手下的副参谋长。
NLRB的成员还包括:John Ring(曾任主席)、Marvin Kaplan和William Emanuel。一个董事会成员席位空缺。
去年2月,NLRB曾发布了一项涵盖联合雇佣身份的最终规则,推翻了奥巴马时期NLRB在2015年作出的布朗宁-费里斯裁决。
据Politico报道,拜登还解雇了特朗普任命的NLRB总法律顾问Peter Robb,因为Robb拒绝了辞职的请求。
英文:
President Biden named Lauren McFerran as chairman of the National Labor Relations board. McFerran has served on the board since December 2014. Separately, Biden fired the NLRB’s general counsel, according to news reports.
In a statement, McFerran said “I look forward to this new chapter in the board’s work, redoubling our efforts to serve the act’s goals — ‘encouraging the practice and procedure of collective bargaining and … protecting the exercise by workers of full freedom of association.’”
Her term expires in December 2024.
Prior to serving on the NLRB, McFerran was chief labor counsel for the Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor and Pensions. She also previously served the committee as deputy staff director under former Sen. Tom Harkin, D-Iowa.
The NLRB also comprises John Ring, who previously served as chairman; Marvin Kaplan; and William Emanuel. One board member seat is vacant.
Last February, the NLRB had released a final rule covering joint employment status, reversing the 2015 Browning-Ferris ruling by the Obama-era NLRB.
Biden also fired NLRB General Counsel Peter Robb, a Trump appointee, after Robb refused a request to resign, Politico reported.
Board Member
Lauren McFerran served as a Member of the NLRB from December 17, 2014 until December 16, 2019. On July 29, 2020, the Senate confirmed her renomination as a Board Member for a term expiring on December 16, 2024.
On January 20, 2021, President Joseph R. Biden named Ms. McFerran Chairman of the National Labor Relations Board.
Previous to her appointment to the NLRB, Ms. McFerran served as Chief Labor Counsel for the Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions (HELP Committee) and had also served the Committee as Deputy Staff Director under Senator Tom Harkin. She began on the HELP Committee as Senior Labor Counsel for Senator Ted Kennedy. Before her work in the United States Senate, Ms. McFerran was an associate at Bredhoff & Kaiser, P.L.L.C. and served as a law clerk for Chief Judge Carolyn Dineen King on the United States Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit. Ms. McFerran received a B.A. from Rice University and a J.D. from Yale Law School.
资讯
2021年01月21日
资讯
硅谷猎头谈:在美国不要问这20个非法面试问题,给面试官提个醒作者:@硅谷猎头Tom Zhang
近年来,中美两国在经济、科技和文化领域的交流越来越广泛和深入。很多中国公司来美国招聘人才,或者设立公司开展业务。在美国面试候选人的过程中,面试官要特别小心,注意不要违法美国联邦和各州的法律和法规。下面是在美国非法的20个面试问题。
你上一份工作的工资是多少?你能提供现在公司的薪资证明吗?
最近几年美国已经有18个州立法,禁止雇主在面试中问候选人的薪酬历史 (Salary History Ban)。这些州包括加利福尼亚、纽约、夏威夷、佐治亚、弗吉尼亚、华盛顿特区、犹他、肯塔基、伊利诺伊、马里兰、马萨诸塞、密苏里、新泽西、阿拉巴马、特拉华、科罗拉多、北卡罗琳娜、南卡洛琳娜、俄亥俄等。
制定这条法律的内涵是让雇主同工同酬,按岗定薪。美国有关数据显示,职场女性的工资低于相同岗位的男性,而且每次换工作的时候,新雇主总是参考上一份工作的工资,导致女性的薪酬一直相对较低。
当然,虽然面试时不能问候选人过去的工资,询问薪酬期望是可以的,比如问:你期望这份工作的薪酬范围是多少?
你是美国公民吗?
一些朋友可能感到奇怪,为什么这个问题不能问。因为美国是一个移民国家,有来自世界各地的移民,有的已经入籍成为美国公民,也有的没有入籍,拿着自己国家的护照,凭借绿卡或者工作签证在美国工作。美国平等就业机会委员会(EEOC)禁止雇主歧视员工的原居住国家/国籍(national origin, country of origin)。面试中可以问的是:你在美国可以合法工作吗?
你是香港人/台湾人?
一些中国大陆来的面试官在面试时遇到到华人候选人,感到很亲切,也可能是处于好奇,喜欢问这个问题。其实这个问题涉及移民来源,也是不能问的。候选人是哪里人,与工作无关。
如果面试官问了这个问题,可能有什么风险呢?风险是如果你没有录用这名来自香港或台湾的候选人,他可以控告你歧视,因为你在面试的过程中问他是否是香港人/台湾人,他回答是,所以你没有录用他。
你从哪个国家来美国的?你是在哪里出生的?
出生地(birth place) 问题涉及原居住国家( country of origin),面试中不能问,否则涉嫌歧视。因为候选人是来自哪个国家的移民,与工作本身无关。
你的父母是从中国大陆移民来美国的吗?你们家最早是从欧洲来的吗?
这个问题同样涉及原居住国家/国籍(national origin),不能问。三毛作词的《橄榄树》里的有一句歌词,“不要总问我从哪里来,我的故乡在远方“。面试官不能太好奇,人家祖先从哪里来到美国,和你有啥关系。
英语是你的母语吗?你的母语是什么?
除了特别的工作岗位比如翻译,这个母语问题也涉及候选人的原居住国家/国籍(national origin)。候选人的母语是不是英语,和工作岗位本身无关,只要他/她的英语沟通能力符合岗位要求就可以。
你是哪一年高中毕业的?你什么时候大学毕业的?
美国联邦劳动法严格禁止年龄歧视,上面两个问题的答案中可以猜测出候选人的年龄,因为一般人正常是18岁高中毕业,如果是本科学历,再加4年,就是 22岁,所以面试时不能问候选人是哪一年高中/大学毕业的。
你多大年纪了?你是哪一年出生的?
这样赤裸裸地问候选人的年龄,更是不行。国内有的招聘广告上要求候选人的年龄不能超过 35岁,这在美国是违法的,风险很大。
你打算什么时候退休?
候选人何时退休和工作岗位本身没有任何联系,这个问题也不能问。美国二战后,从1946年至1964年,这18年间出生的人口高达7800万,被称为婴儿潮(baby boom),这些人现在也到了退休的年龄,属于敏感的求职人群。
你结婚了吗?你是单身吗?
候选人的婚姻状况(Marital status),与工作岗位无关,面试中也不能问,否则可能涉嫌歧视。
你最近打算要小孩吗?你什么时候打算要小孩?
美国平等就业机会委员会(EEOC)禁止雇主歧视候选人是否怀孕和子女状况,这个问题面试中不能问。国内有些公司不喜欢聘用未婚或已婚未育的女性候选人,他们认为入职后可能因为生孩子而耽误工作。已婚已育成了加分项。
你有孩子吗?你有几个孩子?小孩几岁了?
面试中不要拉家常,这些问题都不要问,因为与工作岗位的要求无关。
你是共和党还是民主党?
美国平等就业机会委员会(EEOC)禁止雇主歧视候选人的政治派别和宗教信仰。这个问题面试中不能问。
上次总统选举,你投票选的是特朗普,还是希拉里?2020 总统大选,你会选特朗普吗?
这个问题涉及候选人的政治倾向,面试中不能问,否则可能涉嫌歧视。
你周末去教会吗?你是基督徒吗?你信耶稣吗?
这个问题涉及候选人的宗教信仰,面试中不能问,否则可能涉嫌歧视。
你在美国买房子了吗?你现在住的房子是租的还是买的?
是否拥有住房,与工作岗位无关,面试中不要问这个问题,否则可能涉嫌歧视。
你买汽车了吗?
除非你在招聘司机或者送外卖的岗位,否则候选人是否拥有汽车,与工作岗位无关,面试中不要问。
你之前在工作中受过伤吗?身体或精神方面有残障吗?
身体的残障(disability) 话题也是面试中禁止提问的。《美国残疾人法》(Americans with Disabilities Act )保护身体上有残障的人士在就业、上学和参与社会活动等方面的平等机会。
你的身高和体重是多少?
除非特别的工作岗位,身高和体重也是面试中禁止问的问题,否则可能涉嫌歧视,比如你在面试中问了一个体重超重的候选人体重是多少,后来没有录用他,他可能控告你歧视他身体胖。
你为什么退伍?
退伍军人也是美国平等就业机会委员会(EEOC)保护的一个类别,面试中不能询问候选人退伍的原因。
总结一下,美国是一个多元化的移民国家,有很多不同种族、肤色、宗教信仰等人群,联邦法律强调工作机会平等。面试不是拉家常,不要问东问西,问些与工作岗位无关的问题。面试官不要好奇心太强,好奇心害死人。如果实在想说点别的,可以谈谈天气、体育之类的安全话题。
作者简介:@硅谷猎头 Tom Zhang,张琦博士,硅谷资深人才专家,在中美高端人才的研究、引进和管理方面有丰富的实践经验。作为特斯拉电动汽车公司在亚太区的第一个 HR,他协助组建了最早的亚太区团队。曾经在 Google 总部和腾讯负责高端人才的搜索工作。多次作为客座嘉宾,为沃顿商学院、长江商学院、清华大学、中国人民大学、浙江大学、上海交通大学、武汉大学、新加坡南洋理工大学等学员分享硅谷的人才与创新,曾应邀在海尔、美的、滴滴等公司总部讲课。曾任教于美国加州圣荷西州立大学计算机系,在浙江大学获得工学博士学位。
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