Fuel50 targets US expansion with Ice Angels support

An Auckland company whose software helps businesses and workers communicate about career development plans to expand into America and open an office in San Francisco with help from the Ice Angels investment network.

Career Engagement Group's cloud-based software, Fuel50, is used by about 40 organisations worldwide and locally, including Westpac, Frucor, Zed, Fisher & Paykel Finance, and Fonterra.

The software is designed to help workers with career development within an organisation.

"We're providing a pathway for each and every employee in an organisation so they can see a line of sight to opportunities for them," said the startup's chief executive and co-founder, Anne Fulton.

"Basically you would log in as an employee and would start to think what is important to you in your career, what are your values, what talent you've got, what kind of skills do you want to contribute at work," she said. "Your manager then gets some unique insight into what your expectations are and generally what they can do is provide some micro-tweaks to your work experience that have an aggregate or a macro-impact."

Providing an idea of career progression would help organisations retain employees, Fulton said.

The company was launched two years ago and had five staff at the end of December but expected to double in size by March, Fulton said.

It has recently secured more than $1 million of funding from the Ice Angels investment network and plans to open an office in San Francisco early this year.