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TribeHR Corp. has raised $1 million in seed funding from Matrix Partners to sell human resource management software—a sector that’s been very lucrative for software-as-a-service companies.

The Waterloo, Ontario-based company is building software that’s designed specifically for small and medium-size businesses to manage employee records, job applicants, vacations and performance reviews.

Since Taleo Corp.‘s initial public offering in 2005, the human resources department has been a lucrative target for venture capitalists and entrepreneurs. That was followed by SuccessFactors Inc.‘s IPO in 2007 and Cornerstone OnDemand Inc.‘s this spring.

Unlike those companies, and other competitors, TribeHR has built the first “modern, social HR tool,” said David Skok, a partner at Matrix. “Most SaaS offerings are targeting the high end of the market and are an old design.”

By contrast, TribeHR tries to bring the transparency and frequent status updates that define social networking to the human resources space by making the system more accessible and easy to use by employees and managers, rather than designing it for human resource managers, said Joseph Fung, the company’s co-founder and chief executive.

He declined to disclose the valuation on the round.

Rather than making performance reviews a tedious, once-a-year process, TribeHR makes it fun by “congratulating co-workers, seeing when they are accomplishing their goals and knowing that Cathy is out on vacation, not just skipping out on work,” Fung said.

This is similar model to 2Catalyze Inc., which raised a $7 million Series A round from Bridgescale Partners in September. That company sells a service called Rypple, which also incorporates social features to make the performance review process more continuous and less dreadful. Rypple, however, is focused specifically on employee reviews and does not cater exclusively to small and medium-size businesses.

The proceeds of the round will be used to expand its sales and marketing and customer support, Fung said.

TribeHR launched its beta version a year ago and its product is now fully available.