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Rypple raises $7 million for workplace feedback SW

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CIOL Bureau
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SAN FRANCISCO, US: At 36, Daniel Debow is a little too old to be considered part of Generation Y, but his software startup, Rypple, is perhaps aptly suited for the young demographic.

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Debow is founder and co-CEO of Toronto-based Rypple, which last week raised $7 million in a Series A round from Bridgescale Partners, Edgestone Capital Ventures, Extreme Venture Partners and individual investors Peter Thiel (an early Facebook investor), Seymour Schulich, Joe Sigelman and Roger Martin (who also serves as director of Thomson Reuters).

To date, Rypple has raised $13 million in funding, including a large $6 million seed round from angels in late 2008.

Rypple develops human resource software that makes it easier for employees and managers to register feedback about each other's performances within their organizations. Debow said Rypple develops human resource software that's patterned similarly after Twitter and Facebook in that it provides a Web-based service that is easy to use and makes use of social behavior for users, particularly younger employees from the Gen Y or Millennial Generation (born roughly between 1977 and 2000).

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For example, managers and employees can go online and post their reviews of individuals or teams, recognize them for tasks completed and give kudos to their performances. The data is then catalogued and easily retrieved during performance reviews.

"But it's not just Gen Y people who like the software," Debow said.

"CEOs and upper management executives also like it because they have found it's an easy way to provide and give direct feedback across an organization."

Debow said Rypple has thousands of customers, although he wouldn't disclose exact numbers. Customers include Internet browser company Mozilla, news aggregator Digg and the IT hosting company Rackspace. Debow said most of the customer using the software have between 20 and 500 employees.