• Swindon & Wiltshire Innovation
• Tuesday September 10 2024
• Author Name: Peter Davison

HeyFlow secures £235,000 investment from Aer Venture Studios

A female reproductive health inclusion business, which aims to end disadvantage for women in the workplace, has become the founding investment client for Aer Venture Studios, the new SaaS impact-driven venture arm from Aer Studios.

The £235,000 investment will support the build and architecture of HeyFlow’s tech platform and employee insight product, enabling it to reach even more enterprise clients.

A majority-female start-up, HeyFlow aims to create meaningful change for women at work globally, at a time when 31 per cent of women experience severe reproductive health symptoms every year: 85 per cent of women face at least four reproductive health conditions and mothers see a 60 per cent drop in earnings following their first child, compared to fathers.

HeyFlow aims to transform organisations through employee experience insight that reshapes workplace behaviour and fuels meaningful change for women’s inclusion, resulting in organisations retaining talent, promoting talent, boosting profitability, and creating an equitable future.

Aer Venture Studios has been launched by creative technology firm Aer Studios to help early-stage SaaS tech businesses with funding and creative tech expertise to accelerate their time to market.

It aims to create meaningful digital experiences that have an impact on people and planet. It’s set up to deliver the financial backing that early-stage ventures need, tech expertise required to develop products to a launch-ready stage and partnerships required for future investment rounds.

Following its launch in 2023, HeyFlow has worked with progressive companies including Hitachi Vantara, BIMA and Digitas UK, part of the Publicis Groupe, providing insight into their female employee experiences, management’s ability to support, informing leadership gender inclusion strategies and empowering them to create change.

The funding will enable the development of its technology platform to deliver on a national and global basis, as well as providing progress measurement and on-demand industry benchmarking.

HeyFlow is now actively seeking an additional pre-seed investment of £250,000, to allow the firm to take the employee experience and diagnostics platform to market. A future roadmap introduces AI to provide on-demand learning solutions and delivering against mandated gender pay and ESG reporting, globally.

Sophie Creese, co-founder of HeyFlow, said: “We’re honoured to secure Aer Venture Studios’ investment and trust in HeyFlow’s vision. Its backing is a testament to our early success and powerful validation of our mission to champion reproductive health inclusion and close workplace gender gaps.

“At a time where only a small percentage of investment goes to female-founded companies, Aer Venture Studios’ belief in HeyFlow sends a clear message that innovative, women-led start-ups are worthy of investment. Their support strengthens our ability to scale globally, and together, we’re set to shake up the future of work.”

Geoff Wells, director at Aer Venture Studios, said: “Our mission is to help organisations realise their vision for digital experiences that have a positive impact on people and planet.

“Our ambition and values are perfectly aligned with HeyFlow’s, making it the ideal collaboration and partnership. We are excited at the opportunity to bring the full force of our creative and technical talent in Aer Studios to realise HeyFlow’s vision and accelerate its impact.”

HeyFlow is a majority female-founded and owned business, launched by Sophie Creese, Nick Dean and Sabrina Walls, with Kate Thompson, an applied behavioural scientist and co-founder of businessfourzero, recently joining as NED.

With financial backing by ADLIB Recruitment, the team brings together many years of expertise in gender equality work and talent solutions.

Aer Venture Studios’ directors Geoff Wells and Tom Harber will play active roles in the future of HeyFlow, with Wells taking a seat on the board.

Wells and Harber bring extensive expertise in delivering award winning creative technology solutions for organisations including BBC, Breast Cancer Now, Diabetes UK and Women’s Aid.

Pictured: HeyFlow co-founders Nick Dean, Sophie Creese and Sabrina Walls