Donut has raised $25.0M in total across 3 funding rounds.
Donut's investors include Chemistry VC, Exponent Founders Capital, FirstHand Alliance, Portage Ventures, Todd and Rahul's Angel Fund, Vibe Capital, XYZ Venture Capital, Ajay Yadav, Gokul Rajaram, Kristian Segerstrale, Manik Gupta, Accel.
Donut is an employee experience platform that automates and scales people programs like onboarding, introductions, recognition, and team socialization directly within Slack and Microsoft Teams.[1][2][4] It serves high-performing teams at over 20,000 organizations, solving the problem of manual HR tasks and remote/hybrid disconnection by fostering engagement, collaboration, and culture through AI-powered features such as smart-match intros, automated workflows, and video facilitation.[1][2][4] With metrics like 18.5 million intros made, 555,000 new hires onboarded, and 4.8 million tasks automated, Donut drives Day 1 productivity and strengthens internal networks for companies like Ontra and global remote teams.[4]
Founded in 2016 by Dan Manian (CEO and co-founder) and colleagues, Donut emerged from research into where work culture thrives—identifying Slack as the hub for remote and office teams alike.[2][3] Before coding, the team validated demand by asking professionals about their "work lives," leading to a Slack-first app that automates teammate introductions, icebreakers, and celebrations.[2] Early traction exploded post-launch, with users creating unexpected use cases like peer learning and regional buddy programs; by 2020, amid remote work shifts, they pivoted to add Watercooler for daily social prompts, coinciding with $12 million in funding from Accel, Bloomberg Beta, FirstMark, and Slack Fund.[1][2]
(Note: A separate crypto browser at donutbrowser.ai shares the name but operates in a distinct domain—agentic trading tools backed by crypto investors—and is not affiliated.[5])
Donut rides the remote/hybrid work persistence trend, where tools must rebuild "watercooler" serendipity lost to distributed teams, amplified by Slack's dominance as a culture hub.[2] Timing aligns with post-pandemic demands for scalable people ops amid talent wars, as HR tech integrates AI to automate admin (e.g., onboarding) and combat burnout via recognition/social features.[1][4] Market forces like rising remote adoption and Slack/Teams ecosystems favor Donut's distribution model, influencing the ecosystem by powering organic connections at scale—used even by Slack itself—and enabling high-retention teams in a churn-prone landscape.[2]
Donut is primed to expand as AI agents evolve people programs, potentially deepening HRIS integrations and adding predictive matching for skills/mentorship amid skills gaps.[4][6] Trends like fully agentic workflows and gamified recognition will shape its path, evolving influence from Slack-sidekick to full employee lifecycle platform. With remote work entrenched, Donut's automation edge positions it to capture more of the $100B+ HR tech market, sustaining momentum for teams prioritizing human connection in high-stakes environments—echoing its origin as the intuitive fix for culture in Slack.[2][4]
Donut has raised $25.0M across 3 funding rounds. Most recently, it raised $11.0M Seed in December 2021.
| Date | Round | Lead Investors | Other Investors |
|---|---|---|---|
| Dec 1, 2021 | $11.0M Seed | Chemistry VC, Exponent Founders Capital, FirstHand Alliance, Portage Ventures, Todd and Rahul's Angel Fund, Vibe Capital, XYZ Venture Capital, Ajay Yadav, Gokul Rajaram, Kristian Segerstrale, Manik Gupta | |
| Oct 1, 2020 | $12.0M Venture Round | Accel, Emergence Capital, FirstMark Capital, GreenPoint Partners, Mango Capital, Picus Capital, Quona Capital, Stefan Jeschonnek | |
| Mar 1, 2019 | $2.0M Seed | Acton Capital Partners, AngelList Syndicator, CRV, Entrepreneur First, Index Ventures, LAUNCHub Ventures, Notion Capital, Redalpine Venture Partners, Sequoia Capital, Singular, Visionaries Club, Augusto Marietti, Berkay Mollamustafaoglu, Bonamy Grimes, Christian Vollmann, Janis Zech, Rob Dobson, David Hoffman, Dragonfly Capital Partners, Ethereal Ventures, Fernando Martinelli, General Catalyst, Julian Koh, Mariano Conti, Next Frontier Capital, ParaFi Capital, Polychain Capital, Robot Ventures, Stani Kulechov, Zak Cole |
