Give and Take cultivates $2.2m seed round

Give and Take, a US-based occupational networking spinout from University of Michigan and University of Pennsylvania, has secured $2.2m from a consortium that includes state government-backed vehicle Invest Michigan.

Venture firms RPM Ventures and Grand Ventures also provided money, as did undisclosed angel investors and Larry Freed, chief executive of Give and Take.

Give and Take has built an online networking platform to enable better workplace coordination. The service aims to mirror the reciprocity ring, an occupational teambuilding exercise that encourages colleagues to help with each other’s problems.

Givitas had its beta release recently with clients such as Rotman School of Management at University of Toronto and Centre for Positive Organisations at University of Michigan.

The funding will be used to further develop Givitas, recruit more staff, and expand into additional markets.

Give and Take is partly based on research by co-founder Wayne Baker, a professor of management and organisations at University of Michigan’s Ross School of Business.

Co-founders Adam Grant, a professor of management and psychology at the Wharton School of University of Pennsylvania, and Cheryl Baker, the co-creator of the reciprocity ring, were also instrumental.

Wayne Baker said: “We have been helping companies leverage the concepts of generalised reciprocity and social capital to improve business outcomes since 1999.

“It is exciting that we can now use technology to scale these concepts and bring them to a much wider audience.”

Larry Freed, chief executive of Give and Take, added: “Smart companies understand that empowering and enabling employees to share knowledge and information easily, efficiently and effectively not only fosters a giving culture, but also speeds up response times, drives employee engagement and improves business outcomes.”