Cloud-based internal communication and employee engagement platform Oak Engage has taken its Series A funding to £7.4 million.
Maven Capital Partners’ investor partners have contributed £1.8m alongside a further £775,000 from the Maven-managed North East Development Capital Fund and the North East Innovation Fund, supported by the European Regional Development Fund and managed by Northstar Ventures, as well as existing and new private investors.
The transaction has completed the Series A round, in which Maven has invested a total of £6m alongside a further £1.38m from private investors and regional funding.
Despite the pandemic, Oak Engage has continued to grow strongly. It will now scale further, creating 26 new jobs across its sales and marketing divisions.
Oak’s internal communication tools, across a mobile app and SaaS platform, integrate with office applications, helping improve productivity with feeds, collaboration hubs and advanced search.
Its additional functionality includes rota management, instant messenger, surveys, opinion polls, employee recognition, trending content and push notifications.
It is used by hundreds of thousands of people every day across a multitude of sectors, including boohoo, Aldi, Five Guys, Halfords and ITV.
The firm is led by a seasoned former Silicon Valley executive, Will Murray, who has a successful track record of scaling technology businesses and was a key member of the management team of Turnitin, a US software company which recently sold to a private equity buyer for $1.75 billion.
Michael Vassallo, Investment Director at Maven, said: “Oak is a proven, fast growing technology business led by strong, experienced management team.
“The platform is globally scalable and as employee engagement is becoming increasingly recognised as pivotal in the overall success of a business, Oak continues to secure a number of impressive customer contacts.
“We look forward to working with Will and the team as the company scales further and continues to expand.”
CEO Murray said: “With the work we have done so far we are just beginning to see how transformational our new approach to the company intranet can be. This further injection of capital further secures our place as industry leaders within the intranet software and internal comms industry.
“We will continue to invest in growth, our technology and in our product as we continue to push forward with the support of investors.
“Products like our intranet software can help businesses connect their people, boost employee engagement, and promote wellbeing, giving everyone a voice at a time when they need it most.
“This will be key now that the majority of people will want some sort of flexible working situation going forwards. There is so much more to come from Oak Engage in the coming months and years.”