Brothers Philip and Michael Carden seeded the company and raised angel investment; subsequent funding rounds are not publicly detailed.

First clients were HR teams within large U.S. companies adopting internal talent marketplaces.

Startup Rollercoaster

The Spark

Anne Fulton and Jo Mills founded Fuel50 in 2011 to help employees see clear career pathways through more dynamic, personalized tools rather than static annual surveys.

They started by building career pathing and skills management features, leveraging AI and organizational psychology.

The Peak

Fuel50 saw adoption from large enterprise clients using its internal talent marketplace, including NetApp, KeyBank, and Smartsheet.

In April 2021 it raised US$15.5 million in a Series B round led by PeakSpan Capital and Shearwater Capital, enabling expansion across the US, EMEA, and Australasia and further product development.

The Drop

Adoption was slower in some conservative industries where change-management challenges, privacy concerns, and cultural resistance to new HR technologies were barriers.

Implementations and integrations with existing HR systems carried complexity and time cost.

The Reset

Fuel50 improved its integrations with HRIS and ATS platforms, sharpened its AI talent matching and skills ontology, and focused on measurable outcomes like retention, internal mobility, and engagement.

They also invested in enterprise-grade sales processes and improved change-management support for customers.

The Discipline

The company emphasised continuous R&D tied to future of work trends—skills-based workforces, AI personalization, and internal mobility.

They maintained strong enterprise customer focus, privacy and security compliance, and analytics transparency to build trust.

The Climb

Fuel50 has become a recognised global platform for internal talent marketplaces, used by enterprise-scale organizations for talent mobility, employee engagement, and retention.

Its more recent rebrand highlights skills intelligence and talent mobility to address skills shortages and changing workforce demands.

Read more

• https://fuel50.com/company/
• https://fuel50.com/2021/04/fuel50-raises-15-5m-series-b/
• https://fuel50.com/stories/
• https://fuel50.com/platform/talent-marketplace/

New Zealand Start-a-Startup Wiki