South African Health-tech Startup Strove Raises New Funding

Strove, a health technology start-up located in Cape Town, is getting ready to grow its operations after successfully concluding its most recent investment round, which was headed by a venture capital (VC) fund from Japan called Lifetime Ventures.

A statement claims that the capital raise, the amount of which has not been disclosed, would assist to the acceleration of software development as the team continues to create its platform for holistic wellbeing.

Koshu Kunii, general partner of Lifetime Ventures
Koshu Kunii, general partner of Lifetime Ventures

“We are excited to have closed our funding round in a challenging funding environment. This raise allows us to further develop our product and service offering, as we strive towards our mission of improving the holistic wellbeing of employees around the world,” Strove CEO Bruchhausen explains.

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Why The Investor Invested

“COVID-19 has highlighted deteriorating employee wellbeing and a strong need for holistic well-being programmes,” says Koshu Kunii, general partner of Lifetime Ventures. “We see a global corporate future where most companies provide group-based employee well-being programmes as part of holistic employee benefits to support employees from the prevention phase. With strong C-level and execution to date, we know Strove will be a leading player in this market.”

Lifetime Ventures is an investment firm that backs aspirational company owners in the hopes of helping them build successful enterprises. The venture capital business claims that the exciting potential for future collaboration is made possible by its strategic alliance with Okinawa Institute of Science and Technology Graduate University, which is Asia’s leading scientific research university.

A Look At What The Startup Does

Chris Bruchhausen, a former triathlete and graduate of a business science programme, established the activity-based web and mobile application in the year 2020. It gives companies the ability to combat inactivity, burnout, and chronic stress by inspiring their employees to live a healthy and active lifestyle.

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The organisation that focuses on employee wellbeing has said that it is on a mission to make workplaces all around the world into healthy environments.

The start-up company, having established a solid presence in the South African market, made the announcement in June that it will be expanding internationally and opening an office in the United Kingdom.

Soon after the expansion, the firm went online with its first British customer, and they vow that they will grow the number of lives they touch by scaling up their digital technology.

The health technology start-up intends to make significant improvements to its mental health offering in the near future. These improvements will include the addition of more comprehensive material, cognitive behaviour therapy courses, and an in-app coaching function.

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Other changes include the introduction of additional connectors for activity monitoring, the incorporation of a recommendation engine to assist in the personalization of wellness counsel, and the ongoing improvement of the app’s usability.

Strove health

Charles Rapulu Udoh

Charles Rapulu Udoh is a Lagos-based lawyer, who has several years of experience working in Africa’s burgeoning tech startup industry. He has closed multi-million dollar deals bordering on venture capital, private equity, intellectual property (trademark, patent or design, etc.), mergers and acquisitions, in countries such as in the Delaware, New York, UK, Singapore, British Virgin Islands, South Africa, Nigeria etc. He’s also a corporate governance and cross-border data privacy and tax expert. 
As an award-winning writer and researcher, he is passionate about telling the African startup story, and is one of the continent’s pioneers in this regard. You can book a session and speak with him using the link: https://insightsbyexperts.com/view_expert/charles-rapulu-udoh

South African Wellness Startup, Strove, Raises $277k In Seed Funding Round

Strove, a South African employee wellness startup, has received R4 million (US$277k) in seed funding from Launch Africa, a venture capital firm. The funding comes after The Delta, a venture builder, introduced the first product in January.

Chris Bruchhausen founder of Strove
Chris Bruchhausen, founder, Strove

“We are really excited about this capital raise for Strove,” CEO of The Delta, Louis Buys, said in a statement.

“The raise is great validation for our model at Delta of supporting and accelerating ventures from 0 to 1, and furthermore being able to do this at a scale of nearly 10 ventures per quarter.”

A Look At What The Startup Does

Strove was founded in 2020 by Chris Bruchhausen in collaboration with The Delta. The app is an activity-based rewards software that allows businesses to incentivize their staff to be healthy and fit. Its goal is to help employees deal with difficulties including inactivity, burnout, and chronic stress. Employees can download the app and create accounts if a company joins Strove. Employees then connect their workouts and keep track of stats like activity duration, calories burnt, and distance traveled.

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“The Delta was one of the first investors when we started the company and they have been an amazing tech partner to us since inception,” Bruchhausen said.

They can also accumulate points that can be used for rewards from partner companies. Old Khaki, Poetry, Mugg & Bean, Engen, Vida e Caffè, and Bootlegger Coffee are among Strove’s reward partners in South Africa.
Strove intends to grow into the United Kingdom following the investment round. It has started recruiting partners in order to build a rewards ecosystem for UK employees.

Strove wellness Strove wellness

Charles Rapulu Udoh

Charles Rapulu Udoh is a Lagos-based lawyer who has advised startups across Africa on issues such as startup funding (Venture Capital, Debt financing, private equity, angel investing etc), taxation, strategies, etc. He also has special focus on the protection of business or brands’ intellectual property rights ( such as trademark, patent or design) across Africa and other foreign jurisdictions.
He is well versed on issues of ESG (sustainability), media and entertainment law, corporate finance and governance.
He is also an award-winning write