PwC Raise | Ventures advises Sanctus on £4.25m Series A capital raise

The PwC Raise | Ventures team is pleased to announce that it has supported employee coaching specialist Sanctus, in securing its £4.25m Series A funding led by ScaleUp Capital.

Sanctus works with over 100 organisations to support their employees’ wellbeing with high-quality, confidential, 1-2-1 coaching in the workplace.

The Series A funding follows several years of strong growth and a growing client base including Red Bull, KFC and Octopus. The funds will be used to accelerate hiring, alongside investment in digital and community-focused initiatives to support new and existing partners. Sanctus plans to reach thousands more people, whilst retaining focus on quality, safety and integrity.

The PwC team advising on the deal was led by Cara Haffey and Richard Abrahams.

Richard Abrahams, PwC Raise | Ventures Growth Lead, said:

“It has been a pleasure to work with the team at Sanctus to secure the right investor to help them on their growth journey. Working alongside such a purpose-driven team which is focused on the wellbeing of their customers has been a pleasure and I’m excited to see how Sanctus progresses. As they continue to develop their offering and realise their market potential, ScaleUp Capital will make a fantastic partner.”

James Routledge, Co-founder of Sanctus, said:

“We knew we needed more funding to accelerate our mental health mission and PwC have been a fantastic advisory partner for us. Rich and the team helped us massively with a lot of the leg work on the pitch deck and our financial model, before introducing us to many brilliant investors we typically wouldn’t have met. Fundraising is tough, so having great people around you supporting the business really helps and I believe we’ve found the right partner for Sanctus’s next chapter.”

Chris Slater, CEO of Sanctus, said:

“ScaleUp Capital immediately understood the Sanctus proposition, the value we deliver to our partners and the potential of the opportunity and we’re delighted to welcome them to the team. We are at a moment in time where we have the opportunity as business leaders to redesign the workplace of the future, rather than paying lip service to supporting employees’ wellbeing by putting the latest app into an employee's hands. I’m excited about the role we can play in putting humans at the heart of business strategy and supporting employees to be their very best. In ScaleUp we have found an investor who believes in our ambition to build a coaching business that sets the standard for quality in an unregulated coaching market and by doing so, supports our desire to enable all employees to thrive at work.” 

Frank Hyman, COO at ScaleUp Capital, said:

“The investment is aligned well with Sanctus’ ‘human-first’ approach to business building. ScaleUp is notably different to many other Venture Capital funds, not adopting a spray and pray approach to investing, but working very closely with a handful of businesses and impressively reporting no investment losses in 18 years. Our approach fits well with Sanctus’s mental health philosophy that heavily prioritises safety, quality and trust.”