Novaworks Raises $8 Million Seed to Build AI Workforce OS on ServiceNow

Kelley Steven-Waiss and Eswar Vandanapu sold Hitch Works, Inc. to ServiceNow for $57 million in 2022. Now they're back, this time as founders of a company built on the same platform they once sold into, and carrying $8 million in new seed funding to prove the bet.

On March 23, 2026, Novaworks officially launched out of stealth and announced an $8 million seed round led by Stalwart Ventures, with participation from ServiceNow Ventures and Bell Ventures. The round's structure reflects a pointed strategic alignment: the enterprise platform Novaworks is built on is also writing checks to fund it.

"Legacy HCM systems were built for a static workforce that no longer exists," said Steven-Waiss, co-founder and CEO. "With the shift to agentic AI, there is an opportunity to leverage emerging technology to define a new operating model for organizations in how they deploy and manage their total workforce, including employees, contractors, and agents."

Novaworks describes itself as the AI-native HCM operating system for Total Workforce Management built on the ServiceNow AI platform, designed for organizations often forced into complex enterprise HR systems or stitched-together point solutions. By embedding AI directly into core workflows, the platform aims to help organizations simplify operations and coordinate the modern workforce more effectively. The company claims to be the first agentic operating system for Total Workforce Management, designed to enable enterprise organizations to modernize HR.

Chief Product Officer Melanie Lougee joins with more than 25 years working in HR technology. Most recently she was the VP of Vision and Experience at Workday. Prior to that, she led Strategy and Future HR Products at ServiceNow, served as VP of Technology Research at Gartner, and held senior-level product strategy roles at Oracle and PeopleSoft.

Steven-Waiss is an award-winning Silicon Valley executive, serial entrepreneur, and public-company board director with more than 30 years of experience driving workforce, technology, and operating-model change at scale. A former CHRO turned tech entrepreneur, she founded Hitch Works and then served as Chief Transformation Officer at ServiceNow, where she acted as a key evangelist leading large-scale digital and AI transformation initiatives for global marquee customers.

The investors framed their participation in terms of the team's track record. "Novaworks is rethinking that foundation with an AI-native platform designed for the modern workforce," said David Mann, Executive Managing Director of Stalwart Ventures. "We were excited to lead this investment behind a team with such deep domain expertise and a track record of building and scaling successful platforms. We believe they are uniquely positioned to define total workforce management for the AI era."

Victor Chang, VP of Ventures at ServiceNow, said: "The future of work will depend on intelligent workflows that connect people, systems, and AI. Novaworks is building a compelling AI-native operating system on ServiceNow to help organizations manage that complexity, and our investment will support the company as it helps organizations navigate the shift to agentic workforce management."

Martin Cossette, Head of Bell Ventures, added: "Novaworks brings together experienced leadership, scalable technology, and a clear vision for modernizing total workforce management through AI. Bell Ventures is pleased to invest in Novaworks, aligned with our objective to support a growing ecosystem of companies harnessing the power of AI for enterprise solutions."

The $8 million will be deployed across product development, team expansion, and enterprise customer acquisition, according to the company. The founders chose to build on ServiceNow's trusted and secure enterprise AI platform because of its extensibility, security, and governance. For a team that spent years inside ServiceNow after the Hitch Works acquisition, that architectural choice is less a vendor decision than a homecoming.