Buo raises +US3M to help companies predict critical employee behaviors with AI

Dila Capital led the seed round, which also included participation from Daedalus, Nido Ventures, and Kuiper VC, as well as angel investors.

Buo, a Costa Rican-Mexican startup making inroads at Mexico’s largest corporations, has just raised more than three million dollars. The seed round was led by the fund DILA Capital. The funds Nido Ventures, Daedalus Ventures, and Kuiper VCalso joined the round, along with angel investors. 

With this investment, Buo will have the resources it needs to advance its mission: using new predictive technologies to ensure companies can attract, retain, and develop the best talent. Buo uses the highest standards to help companies identify exactly what contributes to their employees’ success. This enables companies, together with Buo, to identify the key talent they need now and in the future, reducing overall process costs and increasing profitability per employee. 

The vast majority of business owners are familiar with this problem. Data from the Mexican Stock Exchange suggest that companies are investing between 30% - 50% of their total revenue in talent. Macroeconomic information shows that these costs will continue to rise sharply for companies, both because of changes in labor legislation and strong domestic demand for jobs, pushing unemployment to a historic low of 2.6% of the economically active population. The Mexican Institute of Accountants estimates that this increase could be as high as 30% of payroll. 

In other words, Buo enables companies to implement processes to identify exactly what makes their talent successful and how to replicate it, both internally and through predictive recruiting. This gives companies complete visibility, from their first conversations with candidates to identifying strategies for improving quality. The product is also designed to deliver results within the first three months of implementation.

Its founder and CEO, Mariano Miranda , has focused on this solution for years. From early on, Mariano focused his studies at Yale University on topics related to economic development in Latin America, earning degrees in economics and education on a university scholarship. After graduating, he returned to his native Costa Rica, where he began studying the Latin American labor market. Together with his founding team—Ximena Loranca, Operations; Orlando López, Finance and Strategy; Pablo Rodríguez, Technology; and Paqui Casanueva, Commercial—they began envisioning a product that would enable companies to understand the talent they had and replicate it in the best way possible. That was how Buo was born, serving the Costa Rican market. 

After confirming that demand for the product existed, the team decided to establish its base in Mexico to better serve other human resources teams across Latin America. Today, the results speak for themselves. Buo has become the go-to solution for 40 corporations in Latin America, including 5 Fortune 500 companies and 16% of the companies listed on the Mexican Stock Exchange. These companies have reduced recruiting process costs by as much as 90%, increased their high-performing employee population by 15%, and shortened the learning curve for new talent by as much as 50%. Financially, these clients have seen returns of up to 200% on their investment in the first 6 months. 

Alejandro Chavéz, DILA’s Vice President, says that at DILA, “we are very excited about this new investment in Mariano and his team. We firmly believe in their mission to transform talent management at companies across Latin America and revolutionize human resources through artificial intelligence. We are also excited to accompany a team of Central American origin on this journey, highlighting the talent and innovation of this region. This investment will enable Buo to continue expanding and establishing itself as a leader in the human resources sector, providing essential tools for companies to identify, retain, and develop the best talent available.” 

Skill-based and data-driven models are the future of talent management, and at Buo we saw a company with a very strong team and value proposition to take on this space in Latin America.

Now, with this new funding round, Mariano says Buo is in a very strong position to begin growing in Chile, Colombia, and Central America while continuing to strengthen its presence in Mexico, ensuring excellent service and fast results for the region’s corporations. “We will continue investing aggressively in technology to be the best ally for employers in Latin America, enabling them to understand their talent and, based on that, meet their needs while improving profitability—both emotional and financial—per employee. All of this, together with Buo.”  

For more information, contact marianomiranda@getbuo.com