50skills, an Icelandic technology company developing an AI operating system for HR and people workflows, has raised $6 million in funding co-led by Frumtak Ventures, Swiss Post Ventures, Avant and DRD Investments.
The funding will support hiring across sales, marketing and community, alongside further platform development and expansion of AI agents designed to work with HR teams.
Automating HR Workflows With AI
50skills combines automated workflows, AI agents and human oversight to manage processes including onboarding, contracts, employee requests, background checks, equipment and access. HR teams can define processes through the platform and connect workflows with existing organisational systems.
The platform has processed millions of actions for customers including Icelandair, Eimskip, Blue Lagoon, Domino's, Securitas, the City of Reykjavík and Iceland’s Ministry for Foreign Affairs, alongside customers across the Nordics and UK.
Icelandair has automated more than 20 HR workflows, while Air Atlanta reports saving 50 hours per week through visa-processing automation. Íslandshótel reduced employee benefit processing time by 80%, and Samskip connected more than 150 onboarding actions across four companies.
Expanding AI Across People Operations
50skills plans to expand technology combining predictable workflow automation with AI agents for tasks requiring interpretation, while keeping human oversight for decisions requiring judgement.
"AI is changing how organisations create value. Our job is to make that practical for the teams responsible for people. We are building the operating system for people workflows, where HR teams design the experience they want for their employees and the platform runs it. The hard part is the balance: deterministic workflows where a process has to run the same way every time, probabilistic agents where a step needs interpretation, and human oversight, governance and security throughout. For HR and people operators that balance is not optional, it is the job. That is what we build, and this round lets us bring it to many more organisations." — Kristján Freyr Kristjánsson, co-founder and CEO of 50skills
Building Trust in Workplace AI
50skills positions governance, visibility and human decision-making as central components of AI adoption in HR, where automated processes can affect contracts, compensation and employee careers.
“The limit on AI in the workplace is no longer capability, it is trust. Nowhere is that more true than in HR, where a mistake lands on a person's contract, pay or career. 50skills has built a platform where every step is visible, every action is recorded, and a human decides where judgment is needed. We think that is where this category gets decided.” — Jon Jonsson, co-founder of Avant