Fort Collins startup receives angel investment reserved for women-led companies

MINNEAPOLIS and FORT COLLINS — Sofia Fund, an angel investment group that invests exclusively in women-led companies, has made its most recent investment in Fort Collins-based employee leave management company TiLT (Talent in Leave Technology). The investment is part of the startup’s recent oversubscribed series seed round of funding. TiLT is the trade name for Career Allies Inc.  

TiLT technology helps manage employee leaves of absence. Its platform improves communication between employers and their employees while simplifying the related workload for human resources, managers and those on leave. It reduces risks to companies by ensuring that the process is compliant with current legislation and helps remove the fear and bias associated with leaves. 

The most-common employee absence is family leave. Now, caregiving, mental-health breaks and other illness-related leaves are on the increase, due to COVID-19. From impacts on employee morale and turnover to potential costly litigation, leaves cost companies millions of dollars every year.   

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“Sofia Fund’s investment is part of this new stage of growth for TiLT. It will be used to deliver the solution to HR leaders who are already juggling the dynamics of a highly fluid workforce, due to changes caused by the pandemic,” Jennifer Henderson, founder and CEO of TiLT, said in a written statement. 

Henderson started the company based on personal experience with her own leaves of absence from large corporations to give birth to her children. “Handling employee leaves well truly impacts lives. The TiLT team brings talent, ingenuity, and passion to this opportunity; we’re out to revolutionize workplace leaves.” 

Henderson said the money from its most recent round of investment will be used to expand automation and integration on the platform and add sales and customer service resources to respond to an expanding pipeline of prospective customers. TiLT’s filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission, filed Sept. 11, is for a funding round of $1.25 million. The listing shows that none has been raised; however Sophia’s investment of an undisclosed amount is part of that round, according to Sophia’s public relations firm.

“Our interest in TiLT was first based on its strong women-led team,” said Joy Lindsay, Sofia Fund partner. “As we learned more, we wanted to support the opportunity for all people in the workplace to have their leaves managed proactively and respectfully. Leaves from work are important milestones, especially in most women’s careers, so it’s vital to make the experience positive for all parties.”

Founded in 2017, TiLT is part of the 2020 Techstars Accelerator on Workforce Development, which focuses on addressing the challenges of the modern dynamic labor market through innovative technologies. 

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