Yonder, the all-in-one platform to automate health insurance and retirement benefits, globally, today announced it has 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. Cocoa, Broadstone, Uncommon Projects, and angel investors, including a former Workday executive, also participated in this oversubscribed round.
Dublin-based Yonder makes it simple for businesses to provide core benefits, such as health insurance and pensions, to employees regardless of where they work. The integrated platform partners with insurance and investment providers to streamline the creation and day-to-day management of Health, Dental, Vision and Pensions for employees in minutes. By offering the flexibility to allocate per-region health budgets or pension contributions, employers can bypass timely, costly and paper intensive administrative headaches.
Long plagued by inefficiency and fragmentation, particularly in Europe, access to benefits continues to be dominated by the non-interoperable solutions and offline processes of legacy brokerages. This means existing providers remain limited in their ability to streamline the user experience between employees and employers, and in many cases, still require third-party forms to be filled out. Yonder comes at a critical time for employers as the battle for talent continues in a hybrid-working environment. In making the unmanageable process manageable, companies now have the ability to offer core financial wellness benefits across multiple jurisdictions easily – a significant competitive advantage for attracting and retaining talent.
The Yonder mobile app allows employees to enrol and manage core benefits from local providers in real time. Where personal accounts are opted for, employees can retain ownership and continue the policies or investment portfolios even after they leave an organisation, offering a frictionless experience that empowers people to manage their financial wellbeing, particularly as the cost of living continues to rise.
“Yonder is rebuilding the entire employee benefits experience.” said Luke Mackey, Co-Founder and CEO. “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 modernising 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 Country 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 reunited and joined forces to modernise the entire process, and redefine how small businesses and their employees access health insurance and retirement benefits, globally.
Deepka Rana from Northzone said,“Whilst most tools and processes in the workplace have become increasingly digitised, modern and intuitive, everything around financial benefits such as pensions and health has lagged behind. 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.”
Speaking on the announcement, 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 revolutionising 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.”
Currently in Beta, Yonder’s adding companies to its waitlist and onboarding them periodically. Companies will soon be able to integrate current HRIS tools like Personio, Humaans or BambooHR to sync with the platform. Yonder will use the capital to accelerate product development, hire across engineering and product, along with go-to-market and commercial roles, as it expands further into existing markets such as the UK and Ireland, and new markets to meet growing demand across the rest of Europe.