North West & London based Springpod, a careers network that connects young people with employers & education providers, has raised a £2.25M Series A funding round.
The investment was led by Alliance Fund Managers (“AFM”) through MSIF’s Merseyside Loan and Equity Fund, Triple Point and Cass Entrepreneurship Fund, alongside participation from existing investors.
Launched in 2018 by Sam Hyams and Oliver Fisher, Springpod is a specialist careers platform enabling young people to experience the world of work and university in order to make informed decisions about their futures. Created to democratise access to opportunity for young people, their mission is to transform young people’s futures by providing life-changing career experiences and opportunities, by creating a world where every young person has access to life-changing career experiences and opportunities.
Springpod has seen rapid growth and adoption of its virtual work experience programmes, virtual events and digital student engagement solutions.
5,000 young people join Springpod’s platform every week, and over 150,000 have now used the platform to engage with leading employers, universities and organisations. From the NHS to the likes of Vodafone & Nestlé, Springpod partners with a variety of top-tier organisations to provide the ultimate expert-led experience for all participants. The business has an ambitious mission to provide every young person with the ability to transform their future through life-changing career experiences and opportunities.
With existing offices in Southport and London and a 50-strong team, the funding will support the further development of Springpods growing Liverpool operations with the opening of an additional city centre location to house new positions across its sales, marketing and product development teams. Management also plan to launch into new international territories, principally the USA and Europe, later in the year.
The Liverpool expansion will enable Springpod to further diversify its creative talents, capitalise on the burgeoning EdTech movement in the city, and ensure that it remains close to key clients, such as Airbus and Jaguar Land Rover.
Springpod MD; Sam Hyams commented: “Every young person deserves equal access to opportunities with amazing employers and universities and the guidance to make informed decisions. Too often this is dependent on the school you attend or the professional network you can tap into. Springpod democratises access to top organisations and provides students with the toolset to explore, prepare for and secure their dream next step, from age 13-24.
In a short period, Springpod has helped over 150,000 young people gain high-quality virtual work experience, connect with top employers and engage with universities through virtual events. We are just getting started and our mission is to level the playing field for every young person globally, and become a trusted advisor to upskill the next generation of diverse early talent.
This backing from top investors is a significant vote of confidence in our vision and the impact our incredible team have had collectively in a really short period of time. It will enable us to support hundreds of thousands more students, expand to new geographies and get us closer to that goal of giving every young person the ability to transform their future.”
AFM Investment Manager, David Walters commented: “We are delighted to be supporting Sam and Ollie as part of the Springpod growth story to allow them to build upon the impressive progress they have made in such a short time. This is ‘tech for good’ at a time when young people, more than ever, need expert support to help them get onto the career ladder and help navigate their futures in such uncertain times.”
Marc d’Abbadie, AFM’s Head of Equity, added: “It is great to see Springpod choosing Liverpool for its exciting expansion plans and attracting such substantial inward investment into the Liverpool City Region. We are pleased to be backing a strong team with impressive revenue growth despite the difficult conditions caused by Covid. This speaks to the quality of the pipeline that AFM has been building.”
