Welcoming BetterUp to the PLUS Collective
A core tenant of our investment thesis at PLUS is backing companies whose products and/or services are better for the world and the beings on it. Solutions supporting the future of work — from the lens of productivity, efficiency, workplace happiness, and more — is an important driver of that mission, which is why it’s fitting that our latest investment is in BetterUp. The San Francisco-based company, led by Alexi Robichaux, is a mobile-first professional coaching platform used by Fortune 500 companies and SMBs alike to educate and empower managers to be better leaders, improve team success, and support continued career and skill development. Our investment is part of BetterUp’s Series C financing, led by Lightspeed Venture Partners.
We are beyond excited to be backers of Alexi and the rest of the BetterUp team. Alexi started BetterUp in 2013 with the goal of helping professionals everywhere develop within the new and ever-changing work environment. That goal has culminated in BetterUp’s mobile-based platform that connects workers with certified coaches for one-to-one coaching via phone, text, and video chat. The subscription-based SaaS model platform also provides employers with analytics to track progress across areas such as leadership efficiency, productivity, and happiness. We were continuously blown away by the product, growth, and team in place throughout the diligence process and have high conviction that the need for this type of coaching will continue to grow dramatically as the world and the workplace evolve.
Our artist and athlete partners at PLUS Capital are passionate about wellness across all facets of life — food and beverage, social and professional development, sustainability, mental health, and more — and are constantly looking for companies to partner with at the intersection of where profit meets purpose. BetterUp fits that mold exactly, given how the platform provides the support that professionals need to be elite performers, helping them succeed both in and out of the office. As such, we invested in BetterUp alongside one of our professional athletes who knows better than most how imperative effective coaching is for reaching peak performance. We believe that having a coach in the corporate world is no different; all skills, both mental and physical, need to be refined and continually improved to ensure ongoing achievement. Thus, we expect our athlete’s involvement to support BetterUp’s utilization, business development goals, and brand awareness while maintaining the strong ethos Alexi and his team have already built to date.
While BetterUp has shown itself to be a quickly growing business over the past four years, this is just the beginning. We are thrilled to be a part of the next phase of their growth.
