Employee Perk Startup AnyPerk Raises $3M From Vegas Tech Fund And Others

AnyPerk, a Y Combinator-incubated startup that aims to help companies of all sizes deliver employee perks, is announcing that it has raised $3 million in additional seed funding.

The startup said it already works with 2,500 customers. (One interesting example: Lyft uses AnyPerk to offer perks to its drivers). While there’s a lot of discussion right now about recruiting top-notch employees, co-founder and CEO Taro Fukuyama (pictured above) said perks and benefits are particularly important for making sure those employees stick around and feel motivated.

According to AnyPerk, there are already 400 perks in the system — the ones featured on the home page as I write this include discounts for movie theaters, gyms, restaurants, and spas. Fukuyama noted that businesses can upload their own perks into the system, making it easier for employees to take advantage of them.

When asked about other startups, such as BetterWorks, that tried and failed to build a business around employee rewards, Fukuyama said that those companies often tried to partner with local businesses. AnyPerk, on the other hand, focuses on working with national chains, making it easier to scale the business. He also said that similar perks-focused companies have already succeeded in other countries — the United States is the exception.

It seems that investors agree that there’s a big opportunity here. The current funding came from Zappos founder Tony Hsieh’s Vegas Tech Fund, Zuora CEO Tien Tzuo, Stephen Ross (who owns both the Miami Dolphins and Equinox Fitness) VaynerRSE, and others. (Update: The new funding also included money from previous investors CyberAgent and Digital Garage.) Combined with its previous funding (from Andreessen Horowitz, SV Angel, YC, Digital Garage, Funders Club, and CyberAgent), AnyPerk has now raised $4.5 million in seed capital.

A big part of the new funding will go toward expanding the sales and marketing team, Fukuyama said, as well as building a mobile app for redeeming perks.