SA employee wellness start-up Strove branches out to UK

Less than a year after the South African health tech start-up Strove closed a $277 000 seed funding round, the activity-based mobile rewards application has gone global by successfully launching in the United Kingdom. This, as many other start-ups continue to consolidate in the face of economic uncertainty.

Strove founder Chris Bruchhausen says the company is on a mission to create healthier businesses through healthier people. This is achieved through a wellbeing platform that proactively assists employees with their physical and mental wellbeing.

Bruchhausen, a triathlete and business science graduate, founded the start-up in Cape Town late in 2020. In 18 months, Strove has grown to over 20 employees. After gaining a strong foothold in the South African market, it now launched in the UK with their first British customer going live recently.

“Many corporate employees spend more time at the office than they do in their own beds,” Bruchhausen says. “Unfortunately, all this work and no play is playing havoc with their mental and physical health.

“Strove is about returning balance to the lives of employees so that they can unlock health, happiness and, in turn, creativity and productivity. Our expansion to the UK greatly increases the number of lives we can change with the power of scalable digital technology.”

How Strove works

Once a company becomes a client of Strove, its employees are given access to a mobile app where they are rewarded for healthy lifestyle behaviour while gaining access to a range of wellbeing resources. Rewards can be earned for completing wellbeing activities, including exercise, meditation sessions, daily steps, and even sleep aid content.

As employees develop these healthy habits they unlock value in the form of vouchers from well-known rewards partners, including Spotify, Airbnb, Uber, Deliveroo, Nike, Adidas and many more.

Gamification in the form of leader boards, badges and streaks keeps engagement high, while the library of educational content educates users on health and wellbeing topics. By analysing aggregated data on the Strove web app, organisations gain valuable insights into the health and wellbeing of their workforce.

According to Bruchhausen their experience in the South African market has proven that employee health and wellness is a challenge organisations are desperate to solve.

In fact, Strove recently rolled out a full white-label version of the platform in the form of the Old Mutual Corporate (OMC) Wellness app and is currently deployed at Mr Price, Xero, Prescient and other well-known South African businesses.

With a packed roadmap of upcoming features, Strove is working on becoming a leading global wellbeing platform for employees around the world.

ALSO READ: Healthcare start-up helps SA with stress management