The employee volunteering and sustainability platform, onHand, has announced a pre-Series A funding round of £3.3m ($4m) to help companies everywhere do more good.
Led by 24Haymarket, the round is backed by Northstar Ventures, UK Research and Innovation (UKRI), and Shazam co-founder, Dhiraj Mukherjee.
Described as the ‘Uber for volunteering’, onHand helps engage employees with on-demand social impact and sustainability initiatives, with tracked CO2e reductions.
The funding round looks to accelerate international growth and fuel further product expansion.
Set up in collaboration with eight of the UK’s largest charities, onHand’s award-winning platform focuses on some of society’s biggest challenges, from sustainability actions to protect the planet to poverty and homelessness support, befriending phone calls to tackle loneliness, simple tasks to support the elderly, youth mentoring, crisis support and more.
onHand’s network of charities makes it simple for employees to connect with opportunities to do good in their local area. In return, this helps develop a sense of purpose, increase wellbeing and attract and retain talent, while also giving businesses real-time impact and social value data.
The venture saw incredible expansion in 2022, with 300 per cent year-on-year growth. onHand’s customers now include household names Domestic & General, Channel4, and Trainline whose employees all use the platform to do social and environmental good wherever they are and whenever they choose.
CEO, Sanjay Lobo, MBE,, said: “Whilst most companies have some form of volunteering or a social good program, typically engagement is really low. We solve that by making doing good bite-size, on-demand and based on your exact location with off-the-charts employee engagement results. That’s because the world wants to do good: we’ve just made it so much easier. This raise lets us help businesses everywhere deliver incredible impact.”
Lobo previously served on the exec team at two unicorns, Lastminute.com and Vistaprint.
In 2019, he founded onHand with the aim of solving some of society’s biggest issues using technology. Since then he has been named Great British Entrepreneur for Good twice.
James Campin, investment executive from 24Haymarket added: “onHand offers a tool to engage employees while benefitting society, seamlessly facilitated through an on-demand app. The combination of corporate responsibility and employee empowerment is rare and a force for good. We‘re thrilled to be supporting Sanjay and the rest of the team on this exciting journey.”
Khadija Ashfaq, investment manager, Northstar Ventures, said, “We are delighted to continue supporting onHand, which is helping companies and their employees make a real difference in their communities. We’re looking forward to the next part of their journey, scaling up to have an even bigger impact on more lives.”
Dhiraj Mukherjee, co-founder of Shazam added: “At a time when companies are increasingly putting ESG and impact at the centre of their business to address social, environmental, and wellbeing needs, onHand has delivered a solution with makes it super simple to do good while doing well.”