Strove, a South African employee wellness platform, has raised ZAR4 million (US$277,000) in seed funding round to help it expand to the United Kingdom (UK).
Founded in 2020 by Chris Bruchhausen in conjuction with venture builder The Delta, Strove is an activity based mobile rewards application that enables organizations to inspire their staff to live a healthy and active life, combating inactivity, burnout and chronic stress.
Employees can download the app and create accounts if a company joins Strove. Employees then connect their workouts and keep track of statistics like activity duration, calories burnt, and distance covered.
They can also earn points that they can redeem for rewards at partner brands.
Over a dozen partner brands, including Old Khaki, Poetry, Bootlegger Coffee, Mugg & Bean, Dis-Chem, Vida e Caffè, and Engen, have partnered with the platform to incentivize employees to be their best selves through activity tracking and gamification.
Strove has raised a seed funding round of ZAR4 million (US$277,000) led by VC firm Launch Africa and a few angel investors. The startup, which only launched its first product in January of this year, has already begun integrating local partners in order to develop a rewards ecosystem that will best encourage UK employees.
“We are really excited about this capital raise for Strove. The raise is great validation for our model at Delta of supporting and accelerating ventures from zero to one, and furthermore being able to do this at a scale of nearly 10 ventures per quarter,” said Louis Buys, chief executive officer (CEO) of The Delta.
“The Delta was one of the first investors when we started the company and they have been an amazing tech partner to us since inception,” said Bruchhausen.