MEIF is an investment firm that operates equity and debt investment towards growth capital. The firm aims to transform the finance landscape for smaller businesses in the Midlands and to realize the region’s potential to achieve economic growth through enterprise. It is a collaboration between the British Business Bank and ten Local Enterprise Partnerships (LEPs) in the West Midlands and East and South East Midlands. MEIF provides over £250m of investment to boost small and medium business (SME) growth in the Midlands.

Midlands Engine Investment Fund

MEIF Proof-of-Concept & Early Stage Fund is a venture capital fund co-managed by Mercia Asset Management and British Business Bank. They focus on investments in the software industry.

MEIF Proof-of-Concept & Early Stage Fund

Blackfinch Ventures invests across sectors in fledgling companies with strong ideas and solid management teams. It provides initial and follow-on funding to start-ups, those looking to grow to the next level, and scale-ups. It then works closely with investee companies over many years, providing assistance and guidance to help businesses succeed.

Blackfinch Ventures

Mercia Asset Management invest across four distinct asset classes of venture, private equity and debt, referred to as our ‘Complete Capital Solution.Mercia Asset Management ision is to be the first choice for investors, investees and employees and, by aspiring to be the first choice, we believe that Mercia will deliver superior returns for business owners, shareholders and fund investors alike.

Mercia Asset Management

StaffCircle

StaffCircle provides a performance management and culture platform to help companies manage and motivate their remote employees. We combine One2One's, Appraisals, Performance Reviews, OKRs, Awards and realtime feedback to give a unified platform for cultivating the best digital employee experience.

StaffCircle’s remote employee-focused platform offers a wide range of performance management features, including one-on-one check-ins, monthly and quarterly reviews, OKR and 360 appraisals, real-time performance feedback, and a range of tools to improve employee engagement and culture, including employee surveys, an employee newsfeed, employee engagement analytics tools, and a social intranet. The platform also includes an optional suite of tools to automate standard HR workflows.

Distributed workforces require new solutions for office operations, HR, payment, and more.

Remote Work Infrastructure

StaffCircle Raises £3M in Funding

StaffCircle’s remote employee-focused platform offers a wide range of performance management features, including one-on-one check-ins, monthly and quarterly reviews, OKR and 360 appraisals, real-time performance feedback, and a range of tools to improve employee engagement and culture, including employee surveys, an employee newsfeed, employee engagement analytics tools, and a social intranet. The platform also includes an optional suite of tools to automate standard HR workflows.Key customers and partnershipsThe company more than doubled its customer base in 2021 and as of June 2022, serves ~125 organizations, which also include US and Canadian clients.Funding and financialsIn<a href="https://sp-edge.com/updates/11028"> June 2022</a>, the company raised GBP 3 million (~USD 3.8 million) in funding from existing investors Blackfinch Ventures and the MEIF Proof of Concept &amp; Early Stage Fund managed by Mercia and Midlands Engine Investment Fund. The fresh funds were raised to develop and expand its platform globally and increase its employee headcount to 45 (35 at the time of funding).

ActivTrak is a cloud-based productivity monitoring software provider. The platform offers data and analytics which can be used to detect workplace productivity gaps. The platform collects data from employee activity logs and computer screenshots, although it does not log keystrokes or record video of a user’s screen. ActivTrak also facilitates a range of tasks for admins such as blocking websites, flagging suspicious activities, IP address connections, and monitoring web, and app traffic.Other features offered include productivity reports and coaching, headcount and workload management and personal insights. In November 2023, the company added capabilities to measure the usage of AI tools, automatically detecting and classifying the use of such tools and websites to help organizations manage and improve AI adoption across the workforce.Activtrak generates revenue via monthly subscriptions (USD 10 and USD 17) per user, and custom pricing for larger enterprises.Key customers and partnershipsAs of April 2024, over 9,500 enterprises used ActivTrak’s platform, notably including Allstate, asembia and Nobu. ActivTrak closed 2023 with a 40% growth in its customer base (adding ~2,200 customers).Funding and financialsIn November 2020, ActivTrak raised USD 50 million in a Series B round led by Sapphire Ventures. Sapphire Ventures CEO and managing director joined ActivTrak’s board as part of the deal. The new proceeds were earmarked for scaling global sales and marketing campaigns, expansion of its platform using AI driven analytics, and improving integration with its technology partners.

ActivTrak

inFeedo is a people predictive analytics company based in India. The Y Combinator-backed startup founded in 2013 is currently focused on “Amber” (launched in 2016), an AI-enabled bot that helps manage employee engagement, predict attrition, and get a pulse on company culture in real time. The company also offers AI-driven exit surveys and analytics to improve retention.Key customers and partnershipsAs of April 2024, over 700,000 users across 250 organizations utilized inFeedo’s platform. Notable clients included GE Healthcare, Puma, Tata Group, and Lenovo.Funding and financialsIn its latest funding round (<a href="https://sp-edge.com/updates/9099">March 2022</a>) inFeedo raised USD 12 million in Series A funding led by Jungle Ventures, reportedly tripling its valuation from less than 18 months ago. The fresh funds will be used for its second employee stock ownership plan (ESOP) buyback for all employees and its go-to-market activities in North America. Further, the company claims it has achieved annual revenue of USD 1.6 million as of November 2020.

inFeedo

Donut provides solutions to keep employees engaged with casual conversations. Its first product, Intros, makes connections between teammates via Slack to emulate quick meetups and in-person introductions at work, which are now virtual.Donut’s new product, Watercooler, launched in October 2020. It attempts to reinvent the micro-interactions between employees at the office watercooler online. The product will integrate with Slack, where a newly-designated channel for Watercooler will be created. The product will post questions automatically within the customers’ desired frequency and pre-selected topics.The company uses a freemium subscription model with paid plans starting at approximately USD 2 per user per month.Key customers and partnershipsThe company claims it has supported four million connections (one million since the Covid-19 pandemic) across its 12,000 customers, including companies such as Okta, Zapier, Slack, The New York Times, and Invision.Funding and financialsDonut announced a USD 12 million funding round led by Accel, along with its new product, Watercooler. The USD 12 million raised was accumulated over multiple rounds before the Covid-19 pandemic, with proceeds earmarked for product development.

Donut

Matter is an employee feedback platform founded by Brett Hellman. Hellman was the founder of messaging app “Hall”, which was founded in 2011 and later sold to Atlassian for USD 20 million in 2015.Matter uses 360-degree feedback to evaluate skills in employees which are linked to career success. The platform links skills such as influence, inclusiveness, empathy, resourcefulness, and multitasking to evaluations. Matter is currently available in beta.

Matter

Mesh is a Y Combinator-backed company that allows employees to set goals, track tasks, share feedback, and engage in one-on-ones. The company also offers an AI coach (Mesh Maven) to help employees stay in line with their key objectives, improve the quality of feedback provided and summarize 1:1s. Mesh also offers nudges and surveys to improve employee engagement alongside relevant analytics.The company generates revenue via monthly subscriptions per user, priced at USD 4 (Base) and USD 7 (Premium).&nbsp;Key customers and partnershipsAs of April 2024, the company served over 100+ enterprises, including NTT Data, Grant Thornton and Groww. The platform also offers integrations with third-party software such as Gmail, Microsoft Teams and Slack, among others.Funding and financialsIn its most recent funding round (<a href="https://sp-edge.com/updates/9768">April 2022</a>) Mesh raised USD 11 million in Series A funding led by RTP Global. The fresh funds were earmarked to expand its global footprint across the US and APAC regions. In line with this, the company planned to expand its headcount across the engineering and sales departments.

Mesh

Companies offering tools to infer employee morale (through surveys and quick assessments) and productivity, including functions for goal setting, review, and feedback.

Companies that offer the entire spectrum of HR tools including payroll processing benefits, onboarding, compliance, analytics, scheduling etc

Companies providing either standalone or combined payroll and benefits services to businesses.

EoR - Companies that assist businesses in hiring distributed teams globally in compliance with foreign labor laws. EoRs become the legal employer of offshore employees. Solutions include payroll, benefits, and taxes.

PEO - Companies that offer similar services to EoRs but establish a co-employment arrangement with businesses and do not become the legal employer.

Companies offering tools such as chatbots, surveys, games, and other activities to infer, assess and improve employee morale and sentiment.

Companies that provide a centralized space for employees to access internal and external resources, enterprise applications, and enable workers to communicate across departments, and stay up to date on organizational announcements.

Solutions in this industry hub are predominantly offered under a B2B SaaS model

Employee and performance management solutions use AI/Ml to infer engagement insights and sentiment analysis

Offers tools for companies to hire contractors globally, and conduct employee and performance management

StaffCircle

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