Cork-based employee experience company Talivest snapped up by Go1

18 Jul 2022

From left: Jayne Ronayne, Laura Belyea and Helen Flynn. Image: Talivest

Talivest co-founders Jayne Ronayne and Laura Belyea, along with their team, will now join Australian corporate education hub Go1.

Irish employee experience software start-up Talivest has been acquired by Australia’s Go1 to improve corporate learning and development services.

Headquartered in Cork, Talivest has built a platform that leverages technology to enhance how people and organisations engage throughout the employee lifecycle. It was founded by human resources experts Jayne Ronayne and Laura Belyea.

The company originally began as KonnectAgain. After initiating a global expansion in early 2018 and shifting focus to retaining and attracting talent in the workplace, it rebranded to Talivest.

Now it will become part of Brisbane-based Go1, which has created a corporate education content hub for on-demand training and resources. The Talivest team will integrate with the Go1 global organisation, and Ronayne and Belyea will continue to oversee day-to-day operations for Talivest.

Financial terms of the agreement were not disclosed.

“It has been an incredible journey to scale up Talivest from post-college to parenthood,” said Ronayne, who stepped down as CEO earlier this year. She was replaced by Jeff Matthews, a former LinkedIn and Salesforce executive.

“I feel so grateful to the Talivest team for years of dedication to building this business. I have always admired and enjoyed working with the team at Go1, and I look forward to continuing my own journey as part of their team.”

Belyea added that Talivest’s product and engineering expertise could help Go1 achieve its global vision.

“Both Jayne and I really feel that Go1 is the right home for Talivest, and also the right time in the market, as demand for employee engagement and education tech soars,” she said.

Go1 CEO Andrew Barnes said that learning and development is an important aspect of employee retention, one that has grown in the past few years “as the workforce adapts to new models and the need to accommodate shifting priorities”.

“The combination of Talivest’s employee experience knowledge with Go1’s expertise in corporate learning will help millions of learners across the world to feel more empowered and engaged with their jobs every day,” he said.

In November 2021, Talivest raised $1m for its employee experience platform led by Cork entrepreneurs and Voxpro founders Dan and Linda Kiely.

10 things you need to know direct to your inbox every weekday. Sign up for the Daily Brief, Silicon Republic’s digest of essential sci-tech news.

Vish Gain is a journalist with Silicon Republic

editorial@siliconrepublic.com