AMSTERDAM - The Amsterdam-based startup YourCampus has raised €500,000 in its first investment round. The Dutch venture capital fund Dutch Founders Fund leads the financing round, which is further supplemented by a range of renowned entrepreneurs. With the growth funds, YourCampus launches an innovative platform that makes personal and flexible employee compensation through employee benefits accessible to SMEs and scale-ups.
YourCampus makes it easy to flexibly compensate employees. Through the platform, SMEs and scale-ups can now easily reward their employees with secondary benefits that align with an individual's personal situation and interests, whether they work from home, in the office, or remotely. Because employees can choose their own benefits, they are more motivated, improving their well-being and bond with the employer. Founder Florian Gendrault: “The pandemic has changed our perspective on work. Aspects such as salary and status are becoming less important. With the current tight labor market, employee benefits can be the deciding factor in attracting or retaining talent.”
Collaboration with innovative parties
YourCampus offers employees access to a digital 'wallet' via a mobile app in their employer's branding. With the budget available there, they can purchase their own benefits from an online marketplace. The startup has entered into collaborations with innovative parties, such as Brand New Day, HelloFresh, Swapfiets, Felyx, Classpass, Workwize, and Inuka. YourCampus counts scale-ups such as the delivery service Zapp, finance analytics platform Owlin, and growth accelerator RocketX among its first clients in the Netherlands.
All employee benefits in one super app
“When offering employee benefits, we take into account differences in age, family situation, interests, and place of residence,” says Gendrault. “One employee prefers to spend the well-being budget differently than another. One may choose a bike plan, while another opts for personal development. The financial situation also varies greatly from person to person; some employees prefer to save extra for their pension, while others appreciate financial advice for buying their first home. We ensure that employees see the right benefits in one app and can easily arrange them themselves.”
Successful tech entrepreneurs as investors
The Dutch venture capital fund Dutch Founders Fund leads the early (pre-seed) financing round of €500,000 in YourCampus. Dutch Founders Fund is led by successful tech entrepreneurs such as Laurens Groenendijk (Just Eat, Treatwell, Hiber), Patrick Kerssemakers (Fonq), and Bas Beerens (WeTransfer). In addition, a range of tech entrepreneurs are participating as angel investors, including Marc van Agteren (Usabilla, Surveymonkey), Omri Amir (Easytobook, Travix), Anouk de Wolff (Scaleforce Talent), and Maarten Engelen (ex-Treatwell, CTO Hiber).
Groenendijk: “The potential of YourCampus lies in a multidisciplinary team that has previously successfully collaborated at scale-ups Hiber and Usabilla, complemented by Ruben van den Boogaard and his substantive experience in employee benefits. For the coming years, we see this as a digital growth market. Providing benefits as an employer is a challenging process with a lot of administrative hassle. In our view, YourCampus has developed an enormously scalable solution that addresses the main pain points for employers, employees, and providers.”
