FRAMINGHAM, Mass.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Virgin Pulse, the habits focused well-being company, today announced additional funding of $92 million. This latest round of investment will be used to further accelerate the company’s impressive growth and customer success. The round was led by Insight Venture Partners and included participation from existing investor, Virgin Group. As part of the transaction, Nikitas Koutoupes, managing director, and Anika Agarwal, vice president at Insight Venture Partners, will join Virgin Pulse’s Board of Directors.
The investment follows the recent launch of Virgin Pulse’s next generation workforce well-being platform that enables enterprise clients to increase employee engagement and productivity, build culture, and decrease healthcare costs by providing employees with tools that help them form habits that matter. For nearly a decade, Virgin Pulse has built on its consumer-focused roots to create products that drive hundreds of millions of habit-building interactions that encourage behavioral changes. The company has revolutionized how businesses create healthier, more productive workforces while also building great places to work.
“Virgin has long held the belief that if you take care of your employees, they’ll take care of your business. Virgin Pulse is the perfect example of an organization that’s helping companies do precisely that,” said Sir Richard Branson, Virgin Group Founder. “We invested in this business as a start-up and see huge opportunities for continued global growth. With this new partnership with Insight Venture Partners, experts in investing in innovative technology companies, we look forward to seeing the Virgin Pulse team deliver even more game-changing solutions that make workforces across the world healthier, happier, and more productive.”
"Virgin Pulse has created a best-in-class business that improves employee well-being and productivity, which drives top-line results for companies,” said Insight Venture Partners' managing director Nikitas Koutoupes. "This is an exciting and rapidly expanding area of workforce productivity and human capital management, and we look forward to working closely with the Virgin Pulse team to further scale the business, expand its client base, and deliver great value to the market."
“Insight Venture Partners has a strong track record of building successful software companies, and we’re pleased to partner with them as we embark on the next stage of our growth,” said Chris Boyce, CEO of Virgin Pulse. “With this investment, Virgin Pulse will accelerate our creation of market-leading products that change lives and create sustainable and satisfying results for companies and their employees. We plan to delve further into the scientific research that backs our habit-forming platform, hire new team members, and potentially make some acquisitions.”
The employee well-being industry has experienced rapid growth and attention from investors, enterprises and consumers. Several major events have focused on the industry’s evolution including the recent Virgin Disruptors series, at which Virgin Group Founder Sir Richard Branson, Facebook’s Sheryl Sandberg, Gallup’s Jim Clifton, The Huffington Post’s Arianna Huffington, Yahoo!’s Jackie Reses, and Zappos’ Tony Hsieh debated the future of well-being at work; and Thrive Summit, the premier conference on employee well-being which brought together keynote speakers – Good Morning America’s Robin Roberts, JetBlue’s Former EVP of People and current board member, Ann Rhoades and Stanford University professor Dr. BJ Fogg – along with industry experts and leading HR professionals for three days of education, networking, and inspiration.
About Virgin Pulse
Virgin Pulse, part of Sir Richard
Branson’s famed Virgin Group, replenishes employees with tools that help
them build habits that matter. With its award-winning, online platform,
the company cultivates daily habits and sustainable behavior change that
help people thrive at work and across all aspects of life. Unlike
narrowly-focused employee health and engagement solutions, Virgin Pulse
creates more meaningful habits and drives greater utilization across HR
investments, delivering a better quality of life for employees and
better health, increased productivity, and improved culture for
employers. More than 250 industry leaders representing more than 2
million employees have selected Virgin Pulse’s programs to replenish
their people and ignite their business. Learn more at www.virginpulse.com.
About Insight Venture Partners
Insight Venture Partners is a
leading global venture capital and private equity firm investing in
high-growth technology and software companies that are driving
transformative change in their industries. Founded in 1995, Insight has
raised more than $10 billion and invested in more than 200 companies
worldwide. Our mission is to find, fund and work successfully with
visionary executives providing them with practical, hands-on growth
expertise to foster long-term success. For more information on Insight
and all of its investments, visit www.insightpartners.com
or follow us on twitter: @insightpartners.
About Virgin Group
Virgin Group is a leading international
investment group and one of the world's most recognised and respected
brands. Conceived in 1970 by Sir Richard Branson, the Virgin Group has
gone on to grow successful businesses in sectors including mobile
telephony, travel & transportation, financial services, leisure &
entertainment and health & wellness.
