Corporate Volunteering Platform Vee Announces $12 Million Seed Round

Vee is a mobile app with a global network of verified corporate volunteering opportunities designed to create a smooth and enjoyable experience for organizations to make volunteering as simple as possible. Founded by May Piamenta, who is only 22 years old, Vee just completed a $12 million seed round.

Piamenta founded Vee when she realized that many HR teams were using manual processes such as Google Docs to manage their volunteering opportunities. In just three years, the company already boasts more than 30 employees and 500 partner organizations.

She has been able to get her organization off the ground quickly despite the complexities presented by the Covid pandemic Piamenta feels, “because people are desperately craving a sense of belonging. Increasingly, they expect their employers to create a warm, inclusive environment to that end.”

At the same time, the Covid pandemic has stretched most nonprofits thin. Though people need help more than ever before, volunteering in the field has been severely restricted for health reasons. Piamenta therefore countered by making Vee free for nonprofit organizations. “We’ve added plenty of remote volunteering opportunities, raised awareness of the need for skilled volunteers, called upon businesses to take action, and used data to even more accurately target the right people out there,” she says.

This latest injection of $12 million will help Piamenta invest in the Vee team, the nonprofit partners, the corporate sponsors, and the global community simultaneously. She says that the tangible results of these investments—seeing people grow and flourish together with Vee—are the ultimate reward.

Some entrepreneurs struggle to find the big idea they believe can make a positive impact on the world. This wasn’t the case for Piamenta, who has been passionate about giving back to her community since she was a child growing up in the small southern Israeli town of Dimona.

Her father’s work as a senior medic and running a daycare center for children in need gave Piamenta a solid grounding in the importance of helping those less fortunate. She led many initiatives during her high school years, including fundraising for children with disabilities and organizing volunteering days.

Yet her primary inspiration for creating Vee came when Piamenta’s best friend tragically passed away from cancer when they were in junior high. Piamenta shaved her head in solidarity, donating her hair to cancer patients in need. The experience taught her that life is short and we must make the most of it.

Piamenta sees Vee as a natural progression for someone who always wanted to make a positive impact. “It bridges the gap between people who want to do good, corporations with help to offer, and nonprofits seeking qualified volunteers.”

A challenge Piamenta has faced with Vee is how all-consuming her mission is. She confesses that “making difficult decisions about how much time to spend on my business and how much to spend with friends and families is a constant challenge.” Here, she turns for advice to her more experienced co-founders, Gil Amasalem and Avi Amor, who serve as CTO and COO respectively.

Piamenta wants to encourage other young people to tap into their life purpose. She advises, “As young people, we are often our own glass ceilings. We stop ourselves from trying new things because we are terrified of failure. But we will only ever know if we try. The only reason that Vee came to life is because I took the leap.”

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