Buo Secures Over $3 Million to Help Companies Predict Key Employee Behaviors with AI
Buo, a rapidly emerging startup with roots in Costa Rica and Mexico, has successfully raised over three million dollars in a seed funding round. Led by DILA Capital, this round also saw participation from Daedalus, Nido Ventures, Kuiper VC, and several angel investors. This significant investment will empower Buo to continue advancing its mission: leveraging artificial intelligence to help companies predict and enhance critical employee behaviors, thereby optimizing talent management.
Transforming Talent Management
Buo stands out for its innovative approach to talent management, enabling companies to accurately identify the factors that contribute to employee success. By utilizing advanced predictive technologies, the startup assists organizations in not only retaining top talent but also optimizing recruitment and employee development processes, ultimately increasing profitability per employee.
The need for solutions like Buo's becomes evident when considering the current labor market landscape. Data from the Mexican Stock Exchange indicates that companies are spending between 30% to 50% of their total income on talent management. With unemployment in Mexico at a historic low of 2.6% of the Economically Active Population, companies are under increasing pressure to improve efficiency in talent administration. Buo is uniquely positioned to provide the right solution for this challenge.
Buo’s Services
Buo offers its clients a comprehensive suite of services that allow them to understand and optimize their talent. First, the company works with organizations to gather and analyze high-quality data on their employees, using advanced tools to assess skills and performance. Based on this data, Buo provides a detailed overview of the organization’s talent, highlighting the key competencies of each employee. Finally, using sophisticated algorithms and machine learning models, Buo generates predictions about critical behaviors that should be encouraged or avoided maximizing organizational success.
Buo’s origins trace back to the vision of its founder, Mariano Miranda, who identified a crucial need in the Latin American labor market during his time at Yale. Where he studied development in Latin America with a focus on economics and education. After returning to Costa Rica, Mariano dedicated himself to addressing the region’s labor market challenges, leading him to create Buo as an innovative solution for talent management. Together with his founding team—Ximena Loranca, Orlando López, Pablo Rodríguez, and Paqui Casanueva—they developed a tool that not only helps companies understand their talent but also effectively replicate best practices.
Expansion and Success in Latin America
Driven by the growing demand for their solution, Buo’s team established their base in Mexico to better serve Human Resources teams across Latin America. Today, Buo is the preferred choice for 40 corporations in the region, including 5 Fortune 500 companies and 16% of the companies listed on the Mexican Stock Exchange. The results speak for themselves: these companies have managed to reduce recruitment costs by 90%, increase their high-performing workforce by 15%, and shorten the learning curve for new employees by 50%. Financially, these achievements translate into a 200% return on investment within just six months.
A Promising Future
With this new round of funding, Buo is poised to expand into Chile, Colombia, and Central America while strengthening its presence in Mexico. Mariano Miranda, emphasizes that the company will continue to invest in technology to become the best ally for employers in Latin America, helping them understand and meet their talent needs, thereby improving both emotional and financial profitability per employee.
This milestone not only highlights Buo's innovation, but also its impact on transforming talent management across the region, positioning the startup as a key player in the future of work in Latin America.