CHICAGO, IL -- PairUp, the AI-meets-human-powered workplace super-connector that accelerates knowledge sharing and collaboration recently gained funding from HearstLab, an investment arm of Hearst Corporation focused exclusively on supporting and scaling women-led technology startups.

The global shift toward remote and hybrid workforces has increased the barriers for employee interactions, making it more difficult for team members to build connections, acquire knowledge, and share new information. While many companies host their own repositories of institutional knowledge and best practices, these remain largely untapped due to the limitations of conventional documentation tools and the segregation of information across company divisions.

At the same time, advancements in AI have made mapping and connecting vast amounts of data possible, while Large Language Models (LLMS) allow everyday users to query AI-models in natural language.

PairUp’s B2B enterprise SaaS platform leverages the power of AI in conjunction with human expertise to facilitate knowledge exchange among employees, foster valuable connections, and enhance overall organizational efficiency. At its core, PairUp allows any employee to ask a question in a private chat and automatically get matched with the person within an organization best suited to solve their problem.

CEO Dr. Emily Harburg co-founded PairUp in 2022, inspired by research she did while completing her PhD at Northwestern at the intersection of Technology & Social Behavior. Emily’s background spans industry, startups, and academia. She has worked at Walt Disney Imagineering where she designed technology for the Disney theme parks, at Facebook (Meta) where she worked as a UX researcher, and at EF Education First where she led the Emerging Tech and Innovation team designing tech to support millions of students around the world. In 2015, Emily co-founded Brave Initiatives, an organization dedicated to helping women build tech skills and confidence in coding for social impact. In addition to her PhD, Emily has a B.A. in Psychology and Anthropology from Harvard.

Andy Garvin is the CTO and Co-Founder of PairUp. He has spent 10+ years working in startups in technical roles. Prior to joining PairUp, Andy worked at Kaizen Health, a healthcare transportation startup, as a senior software engineer. Prior to that, he spent four years at CareSignal, a recently exited remote patient monitoring startup, as a software engineer and product engineer. Andy attended Washington University in St. Louis before leaving to pursue building his own company and working at startups.

"The entrepreneurial journey is not meant to be done alone, and we feel grateful to have the opportunity to grow PairUp alongside the talented community at HearstLab,” said Harburg. “At PairUp, we are working to reimagine the way people collaborate and connect at work, and we feel honored to get to learn from the vast expertise, insight, and institutional knowledge available across the departments at Hearst. We look forward to helping shape the future beside this impactful community of doers, creators, and leaders.”

“A key part of HearstLab is our Scout network, a group of over 180 women executives and subject matter experts across Hearst,” said Lisa Burton, Vice President of HearstLab. “We are always iterating to improve how we match Scouts with founders and their business needs, so our team immediately saw the value of PairUp. We've since seen that this problem isn't unique to us and that the solution Emily and her team have built has broad applicability to increase connectivity and knowledge-sharing across many different types of organizations.”

 

Workplace knowledge sharing is difficult and costly – the average employee spends 8 hours a week looking for answers to questions. PairUp is a B2B SaaS platform that utilizes AI to accelerate workplace knowledge sharing by mapping employee knowledge and leveraging internal expert networks within each company. PairUp saves organizations thousands of hours by breaking down silos and increasing the cross-pollination of knowledge across teams. PairUp's suite of services integrate seamlessly within a team's current workflow. PairUp has had the opportunity to serve employees at corporations like CVS, Motorola, and beyond. Learn more at pairupapp.com and connect with us on LinkedIn.

 

HearstLab provides cash investments and services to early-stage, women-led startups innovating across fintech, data analytics, health, transportation, enterprise technology and media. Its mission is to close the gap in VC funding for women by helping founders build sustainable and highly scalable businesses. With access to Hearst resources across 360+ businesses, HearstLab’s breadth of services includes assistance with privacy and security, software development, legal services, financial analysis, and marketing and design support. To learn more about HearstLab, visit HearstLab.com and connect with us on LinkedIn.

Media Contact

Michael Maerlender
michael.maerlender@hearst.com