Klaar, the San Francisco-based performance management platform built by HR leaders, for HR leaders, today announced its official launch in the United States alongside the closing of its $5M Series A round, led by Prime Venture Partners. The round also saw participation from existing investor Shastra VC, which increased its investment in this funding round, underscoring its confidence in Klaar’s vision and execution. The funding will fuel Klaar’s U.S. go-to-market initiatives, new client onboarding, and the scaling of its India engineering hub, where the company plans to increase its engineering and AI workforce by up to 40% over the next 12 months. The India hub will be central to building and innovating Klaar’s AI-powered solutions.
Performance management has long been a source of frustration for CEOs, HR executives, and employees alike. In fact, 98% of CHROs say they are dissatisfied with how their performance management systems work today, citing tools that are not intuitive or impactful enough. Employees tend to share this perspective; only one in five report that their performance reviews are fair or inspire better performance. Klaar replaces these outdated systems with an intuitive, AI-powered platform that makes performance management predictive and helps craft clear, unbiased feedback. It aligns company goals with teams and individuals, pinpoints areas for improvement in real-time, and delivers actionable insights to drive stronger performance and career growth.
Klaar offers a comprehensive suite of performance management capabilities, including:
- Goals & OKRs: Keep teams aligned and focused on outcomes that matter.
- Reviews & 1:1s: Simplify ongoing feedback and coaching conversations.
- Calibrations: Ensure fairness with AI-backed, automated calibration processes that ensure talent decisions are data-driven, not subjective.
- IDPs & Competencies: Build personalized development plans to grow future leaders.
- Surveys & 360s: Capture a holistic view of performance and engagement.
Designed to integrate into a business’ everyday apps and workflows, Klaar’s AI-enhanced tools provide real-time help and insights, reducing the time and energy required for leaders and employees to customize objectives and track results that are relevant to their industry and roles. Data-driven insights combat recency bias and subjective feedback, improving equity across teams and the company.
“Klaar powers timely, meaningful conversations that help any leader effectively mentor and coach employees and build a high-performing team,” said Lana Peters, Chief Revenue and Customer Experience Officer of Klaar. Peters is an industry veteran with more than 25 years of experience in HR technology. “The Klaar executive team brings deep industry knowledge of human capital management, enabling organizations to optimize talent development, foster a strong culture, and deliver tangible results.”
“Performance management has remained one of the most under-served yet mission-critical areas in the HR technology landscape. Organizations globally are struggling to engage talent, align teams, and drive productivity. Klaar is tackling this challenge with a differentiated, HR-first, AI-powered platform that brings clarity, fairness, and effectiveness to performance conversations. We are excited to back Klaar as they embark on their journey towards becoming a global category leader in this space,” said Amit Somani, Managing Partner, Prime VP.
“Having spent years as an HR professional, constantly battling with clunky and outdated tools, I know firsthand how frustrating performance management can be. We built Klaar to solve those operational pain points,” said Sharthok Chakraborty, Co-Founder and CEO of Klaar. “It’s a tool that HR teams will actually want to implement, combining deep HR expertise with cutting-edge technology so organizations can finally make performance management a strategic advantage,” added Atri Roy, Co-Founder and COO.
Klaar is already working with innovative organizations in North America, including Vidyard, Armstrong, and Zenwork, helping them transform their approach to performance management.
“Klaar has completely changed how we think about performance conversations,” said Seth Givens, HR Director at Zenwork. “It helps our leaders and teams stay on track and focused on growth, and gives us clear, actionable insights to make every conversation between managers and employees more meaningful. It has become an essential partner for keeping Zenwork competitive by building high-performing teams that drive strong business results.”
Klaar enters the U.S. market in an era of hybrid and distributed work, a time when HR leaders are under increased pressure to foster engagement, retain high-quality talent, and drive productivity. By combining years of firsthand HR insights with AI-powered capabilities, Klaar sets a new standard for performance management in goal-driven industries such as technology, professional services, finance, manufacturing, and more
