Vivup & Perkbox announce merger to boost UK employee benefits sector

In a mutually beneficial move, Vivup and Perkbox, providers of health, wellbeing benefits and global benefits platforms respectively, have announced a merger. The merger and majority investment from equity firm Great Hill Partners intends to bridge their collective strengths to create an all-in-one employee wellbeing, benefits and engagement platform. The partnership aims to establish a unique solution to cater to both public and private employee benefits sectors in the UK.

As part of the rearrangements, Vivup CEO Simon Moyle will become the Group CEO of the newly formed company, and Doug Butler from Perkbox will hold the role of Group Executive Chairman. However, the terms of the merger agreement have not been disclosed. The transaction is pending authorisation from the Financial Conduct Authority.

Together, Vivup and Perkbox are backed by a global team of professionals and currently support over 4M employees across nearly 7.5K organisations, including over 85% of the UK's National Health Service (NHS). By combining their complementary expertise and different product propositions, the companies aim to extend their reach and support a greater number of organisations and their employees across Europe and APAC.

Because of their mutual missions and similar set of values within the employee benefits segment, coordinative efforts between Vivup and Perkbox will provide HR professionals with more adequate tools to better care for, connect with and celebrate their employees. The joint venture will boost the firm's resources and capabilities, as well as escalate their potential to meet the challenges of millions of employee users that rely on their solutions, according to Doug Butler.

Simon Moyle, who has successfully scaled Vivup into a market-leading employee benefits provider over the past five years, stated his excitement to bring the two companies together. He added that the fusion guarantees a unique position to empathetically support people and organisations across the UK and beyond. Simon Moyle, who now leads a team of 500 professionals, recalled his days when he joined Vivup, whose team consisted only of 17 at that time.

Omni Partners, a lower mid-market investor in UK private companies, retains a minority stake. It first invested in Vivup in 2022 and can continue supporting the company's growth following this merger. Commenting on the same, Charles Gallagher-Powell, Partner at Omni, declared the deal as validating their strategy of aiding fast-growing businesses to reach new milestones.

The move has also facilitated Vivup's acquisition of The Employee Resilience Company (TERC Ltd) and Work & Life Partners, both of which specialise in offering respective aids stretching from psychotherapy to petcare. This acquisition underpins Vivup and Perkbox's focus on becoming a prominent player in the mental health and wellbeing space.

The investment from Great Hill Partners additionally lays a foundation for the firm to tap into the employee benefits industry, with prior investments in similar companies like Reward Gateway, bswift, RxBenefits, Retiree First and ParetoHealth. Drew Loucks, the Managing Director at Great Hill Partners, expressed optimism in leveraging this synergistic opportunity for capitalising on a growing market to furnish a more effective employee wellbeing, benefits and engagement platform in the UK.