Buy Strengthens Employee Feedback Firm Culture Amp

US-based employee feedback company Culture Amp has acquired Palo Alto-based Zugata, which uses data to understand employees and then help them reach their potential. Terms of the deal were not disclosed.

Zugata's Insights platform uses natural language processing and machine learning to aggregate and analyze written feedback about employees, providing companies with data that allows them to measure and improve the factors that drive organizational performance. The platform can also be used to measure and mitigate unconscious bias attributed to gender by uncovering any disparity in how male and female employees are being described and rated.

Following the buy, Culture Amp will add Zugata's performance management capability to its own employee feedback platform, which uses machine learning to help firms tap into the collective intelligence of more than 2,000 companies who have previously been through the employee feedback process. Culture Amp says the acquisition will bring an 'increasingly sophisticated use of data' across the employee lifecycle.

Didier Elzinga (pictured), CEO and co-founder of Culture Amp, adds: 'By acquiring Zugata we are adding a deep and rich set of performance and development tools that allow our customers to not only see what is going on with their people and culture at every level, but also connect all of that information into a rich tapestry that helps them not just know, but take action. We saw natural alignment across the mission and values of both companies, and a shared vision for what could be when we could connect all the data we have at our disposal'.

Web sites: www.cultureamp.com and www.zugata.com .