As sectors face digital transition, the health insurance, and retirement sector also see it fitting to automate. In view of this, an all-in-one platform on a mission in this space on a global scale just secured an investment. The subject startup, Yonder raised a $2.6 million funding round led by Northzone and Frontline Ventures to build accessible and affordable global financial benefits for an underserved generation of workers.
The oversubscribed funding round led by Northzone and Frontline Ventures also witnessed participation from Broadstone, Cocoa, Uncommon Projects, and angel investors, including a former Workday executive.
The subject startup makes it simple for businesses in order to offer basic benefits, like health insurance and pensions to employees irrespective of where they work. The platform partner with insurance and investment providers to streamline the creation and day-to-day management of health, dental, vision, and pensions for employees in minutes. As a result, the flexibility to allocate regional health budgets or pension contributions is offered, thereby enabling employers to bypass timely, costly, and paper-intensive administrative challenges.
A sector believed to be long plagued by inefficiency and fragmentation, notably in Europe, even as access to benefits continues to be dominated by the non-interoperable solutions coupled with offline processes of legacy brokerages. Leaving existing providers limited in their ability to streamline the user experience between employees and employers, which in many cases, still require third-party forms to be filled out. The subject startup is digitizing this sector at a critical time for employers as the battle in a hybrid-working environment continues. To shape things accordingly, companies now have the privilege to offer core financial wellness benefits across multiple jurisdictions effortlessly, which is viewed as a significant competitive edge for attracting and retaining talent.
It has become increasingly important for employees to enroll and manage core benefits from local providers in real-time and that is what Yonder mobile platform offers. Where personal accounts are opted for, employees can retain ownership and continue the policies or investment portfolios even after they’ve left the organization while offering a frictionless experience that empowers people to manage their financial well-being, precisely with the current economic climate.
‘Luke Mackey’, co-founder and CEO said: “Yonder is rebuilding the entire employee benefits experience. Access to core employee benefits was once efficient and scalable but dominated by slow, tedious processes the industry has become plagued by inefficiency. Yonder is modernizing the $100bn employee benefits industry, starting with health insurance and pensions, by working with forward-thinking carriers, and scaling their offering, to streamline access for global businesses and their employees”.
Founded in 2022, by a team of serial entrepreneurs and engineers including CEO ‘Luke Mackey’, former Ireland County Manager for ride-hailing unicorn Bolt and founder of food-tech app Bamboo, CTO Patrick O’Boyle, former CTO at Bamboo, and Director of Engineering Deepak Baliga, former Engineer at food-tech unicorn Flipdish. Yonder came from a shared frustration with the slow, siloed, and paper-based processes of setting up employee benefits that didn’t resonate with them or their peers. The trio united and joined forces to modernize the entire traditional process, by redefining how small businesses and their employees access health insurance and retirement benefits, globally.
“Whilst most tools and processes in the workplace have become increasingly digitized, modern and intuitive, everything around financial benefits such as pensions and health has lagged behind”. ‘Deepka Rana’ from Northzone said, “HR teams waste time struggling with outdated systems and employees lack a transparent and portable overview of their benefits. Yonder is building the infrastructure that will completely upgrade this for providers, companies, and employees. We’re incredibly excited to back this team and see the impact their product will have on such a large market and beyond”.
Responding to this development, ‘Zoe Chambers’, Partner at Frontline Ventures said: “In an increasingly ‘hire from anywhere’ world, flexibility is king. To stay competitive, businesses must be able to offer seamless access to a range of core employee benefits. From health to pensions, Yonder is revolutionizing this process, empowering employers to provide a mobile-first, portable employee benefits experience that’s directly linked to payroll. We’re thrilled to partner with a fantastic team, building this compelling product in a mega-market”.
Being poised to expand across European markets, the company intends to use the fresh fund to accelerate product development, and hire across engineering and product coupled with go-to-market and commercial roles even as it expands further into existing markets such as Ireland and the UK.
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