onHand, the employee volunteering & sustainability platform, has announced a pre-series A funding round of £3.25M to help companies everywhere do more good. Led by 24Haymarket, the round is backed by the North East Innovation Fund, supported by the European Regional Development Fund which is managed by Northstar Ventures, UK Research and Innovation (UKRI), and a number of impact investors including Shazam co-founder, Dhiraj Mukherjee.
Named ‘Uber for volunteering’ by IBM, onHand helps engage employees with on-demand social impact and sustainability initiatives, with tracked CO2e reductions. The funding round looks to accelerate international growth and fuel further product expansion.
Set up in collaboration with eight of the UK’s largest charities, onHand’s award-winning platform focuses on some of society’s biggest challenges, from sustainability actions to protect the planet, to poverty and homelessness support, befriending phone calls to tackle loneliness, simple tasks to support the elderly, youth mentoring, crisis support and more.
Businesses today face the growing challenge of transparency in their social responsibility and sustainability commitments, particularly proving the ‘S’ in ESG. onHand’s network of charities makes it simple for employees to connect with opportunities to do good in their local area. In return, this helps develop a sense of purpose, increase wellbeing and attract and retain talent, while also giving businesses real-time impact and social value data.
The venture saw incredible expansion in 2022, with 300% year-on-year growth. onHand’s customers now include household names Domestic & General, Channel4, and Trainline whose employees all use the platform to do social and environmental good wherever they are and whenever they choose.
CEO, Sanjay Lobo (MBE), left, said: “Whilst most companies have some form of volunteering or a social good program, typically engagement is really low. We solve that by making doing good bite-size, on-demand and based on your exact location with off-the-charts employee engagement results. That’s because the world wants to do good: we’ve just made it so much easier. This raise lets us help businesses everywhere deliver incredible impact.”
James Campin, Investment Executive from 24Haymarket adds, “onHand offers a tool to engage employees while benefitting society, seamlessly facilitated through an on-demand app. The combination of corporate responsibility and employee empowerment is rare and a force for good. We‘re thrilled to be supporting Sanjay and the rest of the team on this exciting journey.”
Khadija Ashfaq, Investment Manager, Northstar Ventures, said, “We are delighted to continue supporting onHand, which is helping companies and their employees make a real difference in their communities. We’re looking forward to the next part of their journey, scaling up to have an even bigger impact on more lives.”
George MacGinnis, Healthy Ageing Challenge director at UKRI, which has helped fund onHand’s ambitious growth plans, said: “Social enterprises, like onHand, can play a vital role in developing products and services that can be scaled up to deliver real benefits for healthy ageing. That’s why UKRI’s investment, which helps absorb some of the risk from commercial investment in the early stages, is so important.
“This innovative platform matches forward-thinking employees and employers wanting to volunteer with local opportunities to do so, so the work can start benefitting their local communities immediately. It’s particularly gratifying that the idea is now getting recognition from private investors.”
Dhiraj Mukherjee, Co-Founder of Shazam adds, “At a time when companies are increasingly putting ESG and impact at the centre of their business to address social, environmental, and wellbeing needs, onHand has delivered a solution with makes it super simple to do good while doing well.”
