Workplace mental health specialist looks to expand with £4m investment

London based provider of proactive mental health support in the workplace, Sanctus, has closed a £4.25m investment round led by Scale Up Capital.

Launched in 2016 by James Routledge, Sanctus was born out of a desire to normalise the conversation around mental health at work and make proactive support more readily available to UK employees.

Today Sanctus counts 100+ partners as customers, including start-ups like The Body Coach, Goodlord & Carwow, agencies like Dentsu, Omnicom & Vayner Media and Global Brands like Red Bull, Octopus, and Boston Consulting Group.

The funding round follows two years of record growth for the business with over 9,000 workplace-based 1-2-1 Sanctus Coaching sessions delivered in 2021 alone.

James Routledge, founder of Sanctus, (Pictured left) said: “Since 2016 we’ve done a lot with relatively little investment, steadily building a strong foundation of incredible partners and world class coaches.

“I’m so proud of what we’ve done to pioneer a real movement around workplace well-being and now is the right time for us to invest in amplifying our impact.”

George Bettany, Sanctus co-founder (Pictured right) added: “We already have a life-changing impact on the people that use Sanctus coaching every day, it’s time to scale that.”

The funding round will enable Sanctus to accelerate hiring into both the HQ and coaching teams, alongside investment in digital and community-focused initiatives to support new and existing partners.

The plan is for thousands more employees and hundreds more businesses to benefit from Sanctus coaching every month, whilst retaining focus on quality, safety and integrity.

Chris Slater, CEO at Sanctus, concluded: “The mental health & well-being market is going through a significant period of transition, with employers starting to wake up to the fact that looking after their employees is the only way to build successful, long lasting businesses.

“We are delighted to have found an investor in ScaleUp who believes in our ambition to build a coaching business that sets the standard for quality in an unregulated coaching market.”