AI startup Acceler8 lands backing from A16z Speedrun

Enterprises typically spend months and millions on talent reviews and management consulting to plan promotions and succession. But what if they can cut the timeline and spending significantly? Acceler8, an AI-powered workforce intelligence firm, wants to do just that.

The company was founded last year in Singapore by Chinmay Chauhan, co-founder of Indonesian fintech firm BukuWarung, and Trisha Pathak, who was chief people officer at energy firm Motul and consultant at KPMG and Accenture.

Acceler8 co-founders Chinmay Chauhan (left) and Trisha Pathak / Photo credit: Acceler8

Acceler8, which is now based in San Francisco, offers real-time data that can be used for workforce decisions such as talent development, job promotions, and succession planning. The platform integrates with clients’ HR systems and workplace tools such as Slack and Microsoft Teams.

“That’s where the opportunity is – where people’s decisions are so lagging,” Chauhan tells Tech in Asia. The HR-related information that companies get “needs to be more real-time, like finance or sales.”

Acceler8 uses AI to automate much of this work to implement these decisions in a matter of weeks – 4x to 5x faster than traditional management consulting, explains Pathak. It employs multiple models such as OpenAI’s ChatGPT, Anthropic’s Claude, and Google’s Gemini, depending on client needs.

Acceler8 competes not just with HR tech giants, such as SAP SuccessFactors, Oracle, and Workday, but also with strategy management firms like Boston Consulting Group, KPMG, and PwC as well as leadership consulting businesses such as Korn Ferry and Spencer Stuart.

Doubling down on the US

Acceler8 has raised an undisclosed amount of funding in a round led by Andreessen Horowitz’s A16z Speedrun. Golden Gate Ventures and angel investors – including Moses Lo of Xendit, Peng Ong of Monk’s Hill Ventures, the founders of Multiplier, a senior leader at GoTo, and investors from DST Global – also joined the round.

With the new funding, Acceler8 plans to hire AI engineers and sales leaders in the US as it doubles down on the country. The startup relocated to San Francisco to be closer to customers and the AI startup ecosystem, Chauhan says.

“We are in the middle of a generational technology shift,” he adds. “Being in San Francisco allows us to build faster and learn directly from enterprises that are experimenting with AI at scale.”

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Acceler8 currently works with more than a dozen enterprise customers across 10 markets including the US, UK, Singapore, Hong Kong, Japan, and Brazil. Several of its clients are Fortune 500 companies, though Chauhan and Pathak declined to name them.

The startup has a subscription-based revenue model and targets only large enterprises with at least 1,000 employees.

Pathak says some of Acceler8’s early customers have already expanded their contracts by as much as 5x.

Solving critical problems