A company which has developed a digital employee benefits platform has raised £750,000 from Mercia to further enhance its product.
Cloud8’s platform BEAM at Work allows employee benefits consultancies and other advisers to deliver services online, and improve efficiency and client service. It aims to fill a gap in the market for an easy-to-use platform that is accessible to companies of all sizes, including SMEs. Launched two years ago, it is already being used by a wide range of consultancies and has recently signed a deal with a leading employee benefits provider.
Cloud8 was established by an experienced management team led by Ian Rummels, who had previously founded employee benefits business Premier Employment Solutions. The Bristol-based company raised its initial seed round in March 2020. The latest funding round, which comes from Mercia’s EIS funds, brings the total raised to date to £2.75m.
Julian Dennard, EIS fund principal at Mercia, which recently launched an office in Bristol, said: “There is increasing demand from employee benefits consultancies for a simple, easy-to-use and affordable technology platform that allows them to deliver employee benefit services to their clients more efficiently.
“BEAM at Work has been designed specifically to service the historically neglected SME market with a product truly fit-for-purpose. Our investment will help bring forward new features, build the team and enhance the sales and marketing activity. It has been a pleasure working with Dipa and the team over recent months and we look forward to supporting the business over the coming years.”
Dipa Mistry Kandola, CEO of Cloud8, commented: “I am confident that, with our current investor support and this investment from Mercia, we will continue to disrupt our stagnated employee benefits tech marketplace with simple affordable pricing, market expertise and an even faster ‘quick and easy’ client deployment process by the end of the year.”