Sparrow Announces $20 Million in Funding

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Provider of High-Tech, High-Touch Solution for Automating Leave Management and Supporting Employee Wellness to Rapidly Accelerate Market Growth in North America.


SAN FRANCISCO, CA., February 15, 2022, Sparrow, a pioneer in Employee Care Management (ECM), has announced their Series A and $20 million in funding.

Sparrow enables companies to easily manage employee leave reducing compliance risks and better-supporting employee wellness. The infusion of capital will support the acceleration of the company’s sales, marketing, and product development activities in North America. Sparrow is scaling their team of industry leaders and hiring for several key positions in engineering, product, operations, sales, and marketing.

The Series A was led by WndrCo, the investment company headed by Jeffrey Katzenberg, co-founder of DreamWorks and former chairman of The Walt Disney Studios. Authentic Ventures and South Park Commons also participated in the round.

A 2021 Gallup poll found that of the 67% of knowledge workers working remotely, 90% of them want to continue working remotely to some degree, and since 2019, five states have added some form of state-sponsored paid leave. Together this has made keeping up with the changing regulatory landscape for employee leave excruciating for Human Resources teams.

“It’s shocking that in 2022, managing employee leave is a nightmare for companies and for employees,” said Jeffrey Katzenberg, Founding Partner at WndrCo. “Sparrow’s revolutionary offering solves this problem, delights employees, and saves companies money in the process.”

“Critical events in an employee’s life, such as welcoming a child, caring for a loved one, bereavement, or disability, provide employers a unique opportunity to care for their people when they need it most. But regulatory complexity makes providing that support extremely difficult. This causes companies to inadvertently undermine one of the most impactful ways they can support employee wellness,” said Deborah Hanus, Cofounder and CEO at Sparrow. “Sparrow’s high-touch, high-tech experience manages each employee leave end-to-end, solving this longstanding difficulty in Human Resources.”

“Sparrow’s leadership team is made up of industry leaders with decades of experience at fast-growing companies like TriNet and Google,” said Jeffrey Katzenberg. “They’ve already built an efficient double bottom-line business leading the market in tech-enabled employee leave management.”

Among other benefits, Sparrow helps employers reduce their risks of non-compliance, reduces program management costs, and provides a tangible benefit to bolster employee retention. Employees, meanwhile, get a stress-free and transparent process that ensures they maximize every aspect of their employee leave benefits.

“Leave compliance is complicated. Using Sparrow is not. Integrating Sparrow took 30 minutes, it was simple and easy to use, and it saves us more than $100,000 each year,” said Waseem Daher, CEO at Pilot. “Working with Sparrow allows us to support our team members who take leave no matter where they’re located, saving us hundreds of hours each year.”

About WndrCo.
WndrCo invests in, acquires, develops and operates a variety of technology businesses for the long term. Founded by media and technology veterans Ann Daly, Sujay Jaswa, and Jeffrey Katzenberg, WndrCo is co-headquartered in Los Angeles and San Francisco. Learn more at www.wndrco.com.

About Sparrow.
Sparrow makes it easy for employers to care for their people with the only true end-to-end leave management solution where technology is coupled with a world-class leave specialist team. Sparrow enables employers to reduce compliance risks, enhance the employee experience, and increase operational efficiency. Learn more at trysparrow.com.