WorkL raises £2m to accelerate its international growth
TL;DR
- WorkL secured a £2m round led by Calculus, to accelerate its international offering after five successful years of growth.
- WorkL is an employee engagement platform featuring the world’s largest employee sentiment database, born out of Lord Mark Price’s experience leading Waitrose and John Lewis.
- They are the engine behind the UK’s most prestigious business awards, The Sunday Times Best Places to Work.
What makes WorkL unique
Unhappy employees have a significant negative impact on the productivity and growth of an organisation. That much is clear.
WorkL is an employee engagement platform featuring the world’s largest employee sentiment database. Born out of Lord Mark Price’s experience leading the UK’s largest people-led organisations — Waitrose and John Lewis — WorkL allows companies to measure, track, compare, and improve workplace engagement, well-being, diversity, inclusivity, culture, and values.
Their Instant Action Software™ pinpoints specific areas for improvement and provides tailored resources to deliver actionable insights instantly.
Here’s how it works:
- Companies gather feedback from employees and external agencies using WorkL’s proprietary surveys.
- WorkL instantly analyses this data, comparing the company to others in that sector and country.
- Managers and employees get tailored plans to build on strengths and improve weaknesses.
- Employees access a custom dashboard full of resources to help them develop professionally.
WorkL <> Mountside
We were first introduced to Mark a couple of years ago by one of his board members. We discussed the metrics companies are now required to show in order to raise their first institutional round of funding and what was needed to maximise their chances of a successful fundraise. We were really impressed with what they were building and over the course of the following year, touched base with the team regularly. We were impressed with their growth and soon committed to supporting them on their round.
As a small business ourselves, we also know how important employee engagement is not only to SMEs but also to large organisations — in fact the Harvard Business Review found that businesses where employees are happy outdo their rivals by 20%.
There is lots to love about the company:
- Its founder — There have been few other individuals better-placed than Lord Price to build an HR tech business which aims to increase workplace engagement. As the former Deputy Chairman of the John Lewis Partnership and Managing Director of Waitrose, he’s seen first-hand what makes successful people-led organisations. He’s also been Minister of State for Trade and Investment, is a business book author and currently sits on the board of Coca-Cola European Partners.
- Its data — WorkL has the largest employee sentiment database for benchmarking, allowing organisations to judge their relative performance against competitors. They have collected data on more than 60,000 organisations across 26 sectors and 100 countries based on over 500,000 individual surveys.
- Its exclusive partnership with The Sunday Times and The Australian — allows them to run the Best Places To Work Awards in the UK, Ireland, and Australia, which provides a fantastic Go-To-Market strategy and reinforces WorkL’s credibility within the space.
“The team at Mountside have been a pleasure to work with and having their support in finding the right strategic partner for WorkL and completing the investment process is much appreciated.”
— Lord Mark Price, Founder of WorkL
“We’ve really enjoyed working with Lord Price and the WorkL team in preparing for their first round of institutional funding, the growth they’ve seen to date has been remarkable and I’m looking forward to seeing where they go next.”
— Jon Steinberg, Partner at Mountside Ventures
The raise
The company secured a £2m round from Calculus Capital. Alexander Crawford, Co-head of Investments at Calculus who will sit on WorkL’s board said:
“In today’s workplace, data-driven employee feedback is crucial to creating a high-performing culture and improving employee happiness and performance. We were attracted to the strong management team, led by Lord Price, who has very considerable business experience. We were also impressed by the company’s current strategic partnerships and with the size and quality of WorkL’s database. We look forward to working with Mark and the WorkL team to grow and scale the company.”
What’s next for WorkL?
“WorkL’s mission is to help people to have a happier time at work and drive commercial performance as a result. I’m looking forward to this new stage of WorkL’s growth and Calculus is a great partner to support us in helping even more organisations improve the happiness and engagement of their teams”
— Lord Mark Price, Founder of WorkL
If you’re interested in joining their journey, reach out to Holly via holly.price@workl.com.
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