Canary , a NYC-based emergency relief fund solution that makes it easy for employers to raise and distribute tax-advantaged payments for workers experiencing financial hardships, raised $2.85m in funding. Backers included Capital One Ventures and other current investors. Led by Rachel Schneider, Co-Founder & CEO, Canary works with organizations across various industries to make employee relief funds available to their employees when they need it most. Their grant-making platform, Grant Circle, enables employees to receive grant money when they experience an unexpected, unavoidable emergency that causes financial hardship. Most often, these hardships impact an individual’s ability to afford basic living expenses, like mortgage or rent, utilities, and food. To date, Canary has partnered with organizations such as Visionworks, Clear Channel Outdoor, Harvard Business Publishing, and others to offer access to emergency grants and distribute money to employees in acute financial distress. FinSMEs

Canary Raises $2.85M in Funding

This article is part of Talent Insider , a series containing expert advice to help small business owners tackle a range of hiring challenges. Rachel Schneider, the founder of financial startup Canary , wanted to put diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) at the core of her business from the beginning. But she knew she didn't have all the answers, so she turned to Rhonda Moret , the founder of DEI training and consulting firm Elevated Diversity , for guidance. Schneider and Moret met over several weeks on Zoom as part of Insider's mentorship program , created in partnership with Indeed. "The opportunity to work with an expert who's really invested in developing expertise on this was phenomenal," Schneider, whose company helps employers ensure that their employees can access emergency funds in times of financial need, told Insider. DEI is fundamental to Canary's mission, as women, people of color, and low-income individuals are more likely to experience financial crises , Schneider said. She added that her company will make better decisions when it incorporates diverse points of view and experiences. "If we're really going to be effective at delivering the best possible customer service, we really need to invest in empathy, and that means having a team who can really relate to the life experience of the people that we're working on behalf of," Schneider said. Moret and Schneider shared how they worked together to develop DEI policies and best practices for Canary around recruiting, company culture, and people management. Making equity a central part of the business
A key piece of advice Schneider received from her mentor was to think about equity in the same way a leader thinks about marketing, finance, or other parts of the business — as a central component of the company, not just a short program or initiative. "I found that to be really insightful, versus thinking of it as, 'Here's this project we're going to do,'" Schneider said. Creating policies and putting DEI thinking at the center of the business early on will ensure it's in "the very fabric of the organization," Moret said. To start with implementing this mindset and policy, she suggested to Schneider that Canary write a brand statement that publicly states that its values center on DEI and belonging. Rhonda Moret, founder of Elevated Diversity, used her years of experience and expertise to mentor Schneider on centering DEI within her company. Cassidy Araiza for Insider
"You have to start with making it really clear to your external and internal audience that this is a part of how you're thinking about your work," Schneider said. "That creates space for activity, growth, and for other people to bring their ideas and creativity. " 
Creating space for new ideas and creativity internally
Schneider said Canary has been surveying its employees about "how they're experiencing and thinking about equity-related issues at work," and she was able to use some of Monet's survey materials at Elevated Diversity to help craft specific questions around this topic. The surveys have helped "create space for equity as a topic" among her team, Schneider said. "People step into that space with their own creativity and ideas." For example, one employee asked to host a conversation about National Native American Heritage Month in November. In response, Moret shared several of her resources around creating diversity councils and employee-resource groups, which include setting up forums for employee conversations and ideas on DEI. The next step is to establish metrics to assess how Canary is progressing on DEI priorities, which Schneider said she's still working on. "We want to make sure we're doing more than words, that we're holding ourselves accountable." Updating the hiring process to attract top talent from all backgrounds
Beyond the company culture, Schneider also plans to put DEI at the center of Canary's recruiting and hiring processes by drawing from a broad range of candidates and becoming more mindful about how it interviews and evaluates applicants. Schneider and Moret collaborated to develop DEI policies and best practices for Canary. Erika Ramirez for Insider
To help with this, Moret shared with Schneider her best practices for inclusive recruiting, which include being careful around a job posting's language, establishing panels of diverse employees to interview applicants, and crafting interview questions that are standardized for all candidates. DEI has become an important factor for job-seekers , Moret said. "It's important for organizations vying for top talent." Creating an equitable workplace isn't a cookie-cutter experience, and Schneider said working with her mentor enabled her to develop initiatives that were best suited to her business. Moret said she admires Canary's mission and plans to share details about it with other companies that she works with. She also appreciated helping a fellow female business owner. "I wanted to pay it forward," Moret said. "I've added another contact to my network, and I would love to see if there's an opportunity for us to work together in the future. I genuinely enjoyed working with Rachel. " 
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A DEI consultant helped a startup founder overhaul her company culture to attract diverse candidates and create space for important conversations

Technology also enabled the resort to gather more positive guest reviews, improve housekeeping efficiencies, and personalize the check-in experience. Image
Nestled along the beautiful shoreline of Lake Coeur d’Alene in North Idaho, the Coeur d’Alene Golf & Spa Resort has provided a world-class luxury experience to every guest that has stepped onto the 338-room property since 1986. However, like most hotels across the globe, the Coeur d’Alene faced a number of challenges due to the emergence of the COVID-19 pandemic. To ensure the resort would continue to provide its exceptional-level of guest service uninterrupted, the Coeur d’Alene’s Front Desk Manager Bailey O’Neil knew he could lean on technology for help. The resort had implemented a guest messaging system before the pandemic and saw modest benefits in guest satisfaction and staff efficiency. So it made perfect sense to O’Neil that more advanced technology solutions could augment the guest experience and meet the needs of the day. This, he realized, was how the Coeur d’Alene Resort would survive the pandemic and continue to thrive into the future. However, it wasn’t until O’Neil partnered with Canary Technologies that he realized the full extent of what the right set of technology tools could do. Personalized Guest Check-In  
Like all luxury properties, The Coeur d’Alene Golf & Spa Resort places a special emphasis on providing a welcoming and personalized experience as guests check-in. O’Neil knew that utilizing Canary’s Check-In product would enable his staff to welcome guests before they even stepped onto the property and cut down on administrative work. The result is a frictionless check-in, in which front desk staff are able to focus on providing a white-glove, friendly service as opposed to sorting through paperwork. Gone are the days of delaying the guest from their luxurious stay by making them wait in line, show their ID, sign a registration card, and swipe their credit card. “Check-in is so much smoother," O'Neil says. "It used to be a regular occurrence to have a line that stretched from the front desk to the lobby door. But since we've implemented Canary, we've never really had a line at the front desk. It's been really impressive since we're running at 100% occupancy with 200 guests checking in on some days.”
$10k per Month in New Upsell Revenue 
The Coeur d’Alene’s check-in process was merely the first area of operations to improve. Throughout the guest journey, every visitor to the Resort is now able to curate their experience through subtle interactions with technology. For example, The Coeur d’Alene decided to offer additional amenities and upsells to guests digitally on their personal mobile devices to near instantaneous success. “Canary’s Upsells Platform is incredible," O'Neil adds. "We have more than $1,000 in room service upsells this week alone. It's all extra revenue that we wouldn't have gotten without Canary.”  
Within a few weeks of implementation, The Coeur d’Alene was bringing in nearly $10,000 in additional upsell revenue every month. ‍Guest Messaging
Providing stellar customer service is the name of the game for luxury resorts like The Coeur d’Alene. This means ensuring the hotel staff can stay in touch with every guest no matter where they are on property. For The Coeur d'Alene this meant allowing guests to easily communicate with hotel staff via text. While the property already had a guest messaging system in place, it decided it was time to replace its current guest messaging system with Canary’s. ‍Real-Time Checkout 
To round out the full guest journey with supplemental tech tools, The Coeur d’Alene Resort added Canary’s real-time mobile checkout solution to its technology stack. This produced two beneficial results for the resort — one expected, and one not. The first result of the implementation was an increase in positive guest reviews thanks to Canary’s inclusion of a review request during the checkout process. Since Canary’s checkout solution collects guest feedback 8-18 hours before the guest leaves the property, the Resort staff are able to catch any negative guest experience while the guest is still on property. “We love the reviews and feedback from guests before they leave the property," O'Neil explains. "And it's crazy how easy it is to combine Canary Checkout & Messages. Checkout allows us to identify unhappy guests and then Messages enables us to proactively reach out to unhappy guests and improve their experience before they leave. It really helps with guest satisfaction and is super easy to use.”
The second, and more surprising, result was a significant improvement in housekeeping efficiency. “Checkout is a lot more impactful than we initially anticipated," O'Neil notes. "Half of our guests do not typically checkout at the front desk, so we had no idea when the rooms were available to clean. If a guest left at 8am, we wouldn't find out until 11:30am. With Canary, we now know when guests are going to leave ahead of time, which enables housekeeping to plan the night before.”

Case Study: How the Coeur d'Alene Golf & Spa Resort Used Technology to Drive $10k Additional Revenue Per Month

Case Study: How the Couer d’Alene Golf & Spa Resort Used Technology to Drive $10k Additional Revenue Per Month

Emergency relief platform launches with over $1,000,000 donated to workers
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NEW YORK, Jan. 11, 2022 /PRNewswire/ --  Canary , an emergency relief platform that makes it easy for employers to raise and distribute tax-advantaged payments for workers experiencing financial hardships, has raised $1.5M in pre-seed funding. The round was led by Capital One Ventures and Financial Venture Studio, with participation from Marguerite Casey Foundation, Propel Capital, Sorenson Impact Foundation, and notable strategic angel investors and operators, including Marla Blow ,  President and Chief Operating Officer, Skoll Foundation ; Susan Ehrlich , former CEO, Earnest; and Jens Molbak , to help advance Canary's objective of making emergency payments a ubiquitous and trusted part of the employee financial health infrastructure. Over half of Americans experience a financial shock each year -- even in a "normal" (i.e., non-pandemic) year -- and over half of those households are still rebounding from the results of that shock a year later, according to Pew Charitable Trust. Meanwhile, financial stress is a major problem for employers, causing productivity losses of hundreds of millions of dollars each year. People often want to help each other in times of crisis, but managing emergency payments is administratively cumbersome and expensive. "We know that how employers treat their workforce is the #1 issue cited by Americans in defining what it means to be a just and ethical business and that most people would prefer to work for a company that cares about their financial health. Employers of choice prioritize solutions like Canary's," says Canary CEO and co-founder, Rachel Schneider. "We are delighted that this investment, from a brilliant and supportive group of investors, enables us to expand quickly to work with more of these employers." "Canary fills a critical gap in an employer's toolset when it comes to helping employees lead better financial lives. While living wages, basic savings, and retirement plans are table stakes, the reality is, many employees are still vulnerable to financial hardship when something unexpected comes up," said Adam Boutin, partner, Capital One Ventures. "It's an incredibly powerful message when a CEO can say 'don't worry, we have your back.' The Canary team has a meaningful track record in understanding and promoting financial health – we invested because we are confident they can build a large business to serve this massive unmet need. " 
"Canary's technology-first approach provides an opportunity to turn a high touch, slow, painful process into a streamlined, efficient, dignified one, and Canary's ability to put data analysis at the center of their product delivery and innovation is unparalleled," says Ryan Falvey of Financial Venture Studio. Since its inception, Canary has worked with a range of emergency relief fund sponsors, from small to large employers, enabling over $1,000,000 to be distributed to individuals experiencing crises. These funds have enabled people to avoid missed rent payments, to pay for needed healthcare, and to feel less stress, and be able to show up more consistently for work. The funding will be used to hire new team members to support the product's rapid growth, especially building out the technical team. About Canary
Canary is helping the 21st-century social net evolve to reflect the future of work. We exist to ensure that individuals can access emergency support with dignity in times of financial need, giving them the peace of mind and confidence to recover quickly. Canary is Co-Founded by financial experts and operators Rachel Schneider, Canary's CEO, Kimberly Gartner, Chief Growth Officer, and Aliza Gutman, Chief Product Officer from the Financial Health Network. You can learn more at www.workwithcanary.com . Media Contact:

12:56 ET
Canary Raises $1.5M in Pre-Seed led by Capital One Ventures to Reinvent How Individuals Can Access Emergency Funds At W...

Uber (NYSE: UBER) provides mobility-as-a-service with ride-sharing, food and package delivery, couriers, and freight transportation. It operates as a ride-sharing mobile application allowing users to book rides, see the estimated arrival time, and rate their driver. Its services primarily cater to the needs of the general public, the food industry, and the logistics industry. Uber was formerly known as UberCab. It was founded in 2009 and is based in San Francisco, California.

Uber

`` Canary is pleased to partner with Uber and FreeFrom to help survivors access funds with dignity .

Uber and Canary Partner to Launch Path to Safety Fund for US Drivers and Delivery People Experiencing Domestic Violence

Financial Health Network

Companies and startups in this collection provide technology to streamline, improve, and transform financial services, products, and operations for individuals and businesses.

Fintech

Seed VC

Seed VC - II

Incubator/Accelerator

Incubator/Accelerator - II

Canary develops an emergency relief fund platform. Its product Grant Circle offers proprietary tools to connect employees to the right money at the right time. Its platform offers a social safety net to ensure that in times of financial need, individuals can access emergency funding, helping organizations improve the impact of established emergency relief funds. The company was founded in 2019 and is based in New York, New York.

Name	Work History	Title	Status
Kimberly Gartner	Financial Health Network	Founder	Current
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Name	Kimberly Gartner	Subscribe to see more	Subscribe to see more
Work History	Financial Health Network	Subscribe to see more	Subscribe to see more
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Wells Fargo Success Story

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Platform Overview

Canary

Executives

Canary Management Team

3 Team Members