UK'S Leading Employee Perks & Benefits Scheme Announces an Equity Round on Seedrs

LONDON, October 24, 2016 /PRNewswire/ --

- The campaign went public this morning and has already exceeded its £1.5m funding target

- Innovative tech startup Perkbox launches crowdfunding campaign to fund expansion

- The UK's leading perks and benefits scheme estimates the global potential for the sector is around £22 billion

Today, Perkbox announces its first equity crowdfunding round, a £1.5m raise on the Seedrs platform, to scale the hyper-growth tech business to its next level of expansion.

The campaign went public this morning and has already exceeded its £1.5m funding target.

Launched in January 2015, Perkbox already has over 300,000 paying members ranging from SMEs to large corporations such as British Gas and BUPA. Monthly recurring revenue has grown more than 10 times to £1.4m/month in 18 months, tripling sales in 2015 and expecting to triple sales again in 2016. The company's goal is to achieve a turnover of £100 million in three years and become one of the UK's largest software services for businesses.

Perkbox's launch on Seedrs this month makes it the company with the highest valuation to have ever crowdfunded on the platform in the UK.

The simple power of a 'thank you' inspired Perkbox co-founders, Saurav Chopra and Chieu Cao, to create a platform where third party businesses can build a happy and rewarding work culture that inspires productivity by saying thank you in a more proactive way. This becomes a virtuous cycle adding substantial weight to the gesture, in a cost-effective time-efficient manner.

The innovative brand is the go to solution for combatting staff turnover and low productivity in the workplace. The platform empowers any team member to reward positive work with a personal perk. Managers can reward teams or individuals on their performance with anything from a bottle of champagne to a mini break for two, whilst team-wide perks demonstrate the importance of personal wellbeing outside of the office and include deals at restaurants, gyms and cinemas.

Next Stage Ltd, a social care service for vulnerable people, uses Perkbox to combat high staff turnover, a persistent problem in the care sector. Since enlisting Perkbox the turnover rate has decreased from 58% to 14%.

Saurav Chopra, co-founder and CEO, says: "In creating lower staff turnovers and higher staff happiness, we encourage companies to view the perks and benefits scheme as an investment for future returns. Perkbox is about democratisation and raising capital through the community; this is our approach to democratising funding for high-growth startups for all. 

"The UK market has embraced our mantra that a happy team equals a more productive team and our first equity raise on Seedrs offers investors and customers an opportunity to be part of Perkbox's future success."

Perkbox has grown organically off the back of a combined £350,000 investment from Alex Chesterman and Sherry Coutu at seed stage, and has since taken no additional investment. The crowdfunding raise on Seedrs is the first time investors will be able to own equity in the business, with many of Perkbox's original investors also reinvesting.

Alex Chesterman, OBE, founder of LOVEFiLM and Zoopla Property Group Plc adds: "Perkbox empowers employers with unique tools to attract, motivate and retain employees. The employee benefits and engagement landscape is changing rapidly and Perkbox is leading the way by championing great working environments.

"The amazing growth the business is experiencing is driven by its market-leading platform that provides best-in-class benefits and can save employees thousands of pounds throughout the year. Perkbox has built a great team, culture and business in just a few short years."

Proceeds from the crowdfunding raise will fast-track Perkbox's mission to transform unhappy workplaces stateside and across Europe having seen the appetite for the scheme in the UK. The estimated global potential is £22 billion and Perkbox has its sights firmly set on tapping into these markets.

Perkbox was recently listed no. 2 in the Startups 100 Index for being one of the most innovative emerging ventures in the country.

Find out more about the Perkbox campaign here: http://www.seedrs.com/perkbox

Notes to editors: 

About Perkbox 

Perkbox is a cloud-based employee perks and engagement platform for business of all sizes, giving employers and employees a range of great perks, social reward and recognition tools and health and wellness platforms that help employers promote the financial, emotional and physical wellbeing of their team.  

Perkbox was set up with the belief that the best companies to work for look after their teams and value their staff. The most successful businesses are comprised of people who are engaged, satisfied and loyal. Providing perks and engagement tools helps build stronger teams and incentivises workers to aspire to greatness.  

Until recently, only large corporations could afford to pay for employee perks. Perkbox's easy and wholly customised offering allows SMEs to reward and incentivise their growing team with perks that help build a happy work culture with an investment in line with their budgets.

For more information about Perkbox and interviews / image requests contact:
Andrea San Pedro, PR Director, Tel: +44 (0) 7891 625928, email: andrea@perkbox.co.uk

About Seedrs

Jamie Brownlee, Citigate Dewe Rogerson- Jamie.brownlee@citigatedr.co.uk , +44 (0) 2072822858
Lucy Sharp, PR & Communications Director- Lucy.Sharp@seedrs.com, +44 (0) 07932404012
Seedrs allows all types of investors to invest as little or as much as they like (from £/€ 10 up) in businesses they believe in and share in their success. And it allows ambitious businesses in all sectors to raise capital and build community through an efficient, online process.
Seedrs has funded over 400 deals to date and has had over £160 million invested on the platform. All investments made through Seedrs offer voting shares to investors and use professional-grade subscription agreements. This ensures that investors get the same level of protection that angel investors and venture capitalists enjoy.
Seedrs is backed by star fund manager Neil Woodford, Augmentum Capital (which is wholly-backed by RIT Capital, the investment firm run by Lord Rothschild), Faber Ventures and over 1,000 of its own customers. Seedrs is authorised and regulated by the UK Financial Conduct Authority. It was the first equity crowdfunding platform in the world to gain regulatory approval.