Maven completes £7.4 million series A investment in Oak Engage

Maven has led a £2.6 million investment in cloud-based internal communication and employee engagement platform Oak Engage. A total of £1.825 million has been provided by Maven’s Investor Partners network alongside a further £775,000 from the Maven managed North East Development Capital Fund and the North East Innovation Fund, supported by the European Regional Development Fund and managed by Northstar Ventures, as well as existing and new private investors.

Despite the pandemic, Oak Engage has continued to grow strongly, and today’s transaction will enable the business to scale further to support the lucrative customer contracts it has secured over the last 12 months, as well as create 26 new jobs across its sales and marketing divisions

Oak is a globally scalable cloud-based platform with flexible software that makes it suitable for businesses of all sizes, used by hundreds of thousands of people every day across a multitude of sectors. Oak Engage allows businesses to engage and connect their people through its mobile app and SaaS (Software as a Service) platform. The cloud-based, next-generation software provides a range of internal communications tools that integrate seamlessly with office applications, helping improve productivity with feeds, collaboration hubs and advanced search.

The product has a very broad set of additional proprietary functionality, including rota management, instant messenger, surveys, opinion polls, employee recognition, trending content and push notifications. Oak works with some of the world’s biggest brands including Aldi, Five Guys, Halfords and ITV to name a few, and have become intranet software experts and thought leaders within the employee engagement industry.

Maven originally invested back in 2018 via the Maven Investor Partners network and the Finance Durham Fund to strengthen the company’s sales and marketing, expand the roll-out of its software, and develop its team. Since the initial investment, the business has experienced strong growth, and now supports a number of enterprise-sized corporates with an impressive customer base of FTSE 100 and multinational clients who join the list of house-hold brands the company already works with, such as Aldi, Five guys, ITV, BooHoo and NEP Inc, Group.

Led by a seasoned former Silicon Valley executive, Will Murray, who has a successful track record of scaling technology businesses and was a key member of the management team of Turnitin, a US software company which recently sold to a private equity buyer for $1.75bn.

 “Oak is a proven, fast growing technology business led by strong, experienced management team. The platform is globally scalable and as employee engagement is becoming increasingly recognised as pivotal in the overall success of a business, Oak continues to secure a number of impressive customer contacts. We look forward to working with Will and the team as the company scales further and continues to expand.”
Michael Vassallo, Investment Director at Maven

“With the work we have done so far we are just beginning to see how transformational our new approach to the company intranet can be. This further injection of capital further secures our place as industry leaders within the intranet software and internal comms industry. We will continue to invest in growth, our technology and in our product as we continue to push forward with the support of investors.

“Products like our intranet software can help businesses connect their people, boost employee engagement, and promote wellbeing, giving everyone a voice at a time when they need it most. This will be key now that the majority of people will want some sort of flexible working situation going forwards. There is so much more to come from Oak Engage in the coming months and years.”
Will Murray, CEO of Oak

North East business looking for funding to grow? Speak to Maven’s local team about your current and future needs, and our experienced investment professionals will be able to guide you on your funding requirements. Contact our team today on 0191 731 8590.