Impraise

Overview

Impraise replaced infrequent performance reviews with a continuous set of manager and employee routines. Its software covered goals, one-on-one meetings, feedback, check-ins, recognition, and 360-degree reviews. The company argued that development should happen during work, not in one annual administrative event.

Founded in Amsterdam in 2014, Impraise joined Y Combinator, raised about $12.2 million, and sold to companies including Atlassian, Booking.com, IDEO, Skyscanner, eBay, Sony, and CERN. BetterUp acquired it in September 2021 alongside Motive, an emotion-analysis company. Terms were not disclosed.

The acquisition ended Impraise as an independent company and folded its people-management expertise into BetterUp's coaching platform. This was a strategic product and team purchase, not a documented distress sale. The central tension in Impraise's category remains: software can schedule feedback and capture goals, but it cannot make a manager candid, fair, or attentive.

Founding Story

Bas Kohnke, Filipe Dobreira, and Steffen Maier founded Impraise in Amsterdam in 2014. They had experienced jobs where feedback was scarce, leaving them uncertain about how to improve. Their answer was a mobile and web product that made feedback immediate and easier to request.

The company joined Y Combinator's Summer 2014 batch. Its early product moved performance conversations out of documents and annual cycles. Employees could ask peers and managers for input, while human-resources teams could run structured review processes with less manual coordination.

Impraise expanded from a feedback application into a broader performance-management suite. Goals, one-on-ones, check-ins, surveys, recognition, and analytics all addressed the same thesis: better manager routines would create more useful development signals.

Timeline

• 2014: Kohnke, Dobreira, and Maier founded Impraise and entered YC's Summer batch.
• 2014: The company launched its web and mobile feedback product.
• April 2016: Impraise raised a $1.6 million seed round and reported a 21-person team.
• 2016: Customers named publicly included Atlassian, Booking.com, M&C Saatchi, and IDEO.
• July 2018: Impraise raised a $10.6 million Series A.
• Following years: The product expanded into goals, one-on-ones, performance check-ins, 360 reviews, and recognition.
• September 17, 2021: BetterUp acquired Impraise and Motive for undisclosed terms.
• After acquisition: Impraise's Amsterdam team became part of BetterUp's European research and product organization.
• Late 2023: Kohnke announced his departure after roughly two years at BetterUp.

What They Built

Impraise gave organizations a shared place for employee goals and development conversations. Managers could prepare one-on-ones, run check-ins, request feedback from colleagues, recognize work, and complete formal review cycles. Human-resources teams received templates, process controls, and aggregated reporting.

The product tried to connect formal performance management with frequent behavior. A goal could inform a one-on-one; a check-in could produce a coaching action; peer feedback could contribute to a later review. Mobile access and integrations reduced the need to visit a separate annual-review system.

This breadth also raised the product's burden. Each module had to work for employees, managers, and human-resources administrators. Feedback carried sensitivity and power differences that ordinary collaboration software did not face. Privacy, permissions, calibration, and audit history were required alongside a pleasant interface.

Market Position

Target Customers

Impraise sold to growing and enterprise organizations replacing spreadsheet or document-based review cycles. Human-resources and people teams were the buyers, managers were the operational users, and employees generated much of the data. The company targeted US and European customers from its Amsterdam base.

Market Size

Nearly every employer manages goals and performance, but software spend depends on organizational scale, process complexity, and willingness to standardize. The immediate market was companies dissatisfied enough with annual reviews to change manager behavior and integrate a new system.

Competition

Impraise competed with dedicated products such as Culture Amp, Lattice, 15Five, Small Improvements, and Reflektive, as well as human-resources suites adding performance modules. Generic documents, survey tools, and meetings were the low-cost alternative.