Proptech startup Healthy Workers raises €1.5 million for software that increases office workers’ happiness and productivity

Amsterdam - Healthy Workers raised 1.5 million euros in funding from strategic investors. The Amsterdam based proptech (*) startup offers companies a user-friendly online data platform to enhance the experience and well-being of employees in their offices. The investment round was led by Cairn Real Estate. In addition, Dura Vermeer, Impact Vastgoed, Eddy Smit (CEO of MVGM) and real estate developer Daan van der Vorm (VORM Ontwikkeling) have joined in.

This investment is a follow-up of the first investment round in 2017. Cairn Real Estate, representing a real estate portfolio of about 800.000 square meters, was also involved in that first round. Healthy Workers founder Boy Lokhoff: “We are honored that, in addition to Cairn, companies like Dura Vermeer, VORM Ontwikkeling and MVGM are expressing their confidence in our product. The Netherlands has over 54 million square meters (**) of office space. It is our mission to make those healthier and more productive.”

A large number of Dutch office workers is dissatisfied with their work environment. Known causes are, for example, cold, lack of fresh air, bad furniture or noise nuisance. A bad work environment causes stress, productivity loss, and physical and emotional problems. Lokhoff: “This is a continuously growing problem for companies and it also complicates recruiting and retaining talent. Healthy Workers wants to make sure employees are healthy and productive. They should have an optimal workplace experience at the office every day.”

Daan van der Vorm (VORM Ontwikkeling): “Our stake in Healthy Workers emphasizes our ambitions to create healthy buildings for our clients and to also keep the indoor climatic conditions of those buildings optimal.”

“Creating a healthy working environment is crucial in the way we look at office buildings,” adds Maarten Briët of Cairn Real Estate. “Healthy Workers do not only provide insights in how healthy the working environment is based on hard measurable data. They also combine this very cleverly with the input of the most important link in this story and the most important client of every company: it’s employees!”

Companies are investing millions in improving working conditions, without knowing the effectivity of their investments. Healthy Workers wants to create intelligent office buildings, where the effect of the working environment is measurable. In this way, the needs of office workers are always clear and health problems or other issues will come to light.

Healthy Workers has built a software platform to accomplish this. The platform collects data about the building and the employees, shares insights with -among others- facility managers and employees, advises interventions and gives smart notifications.

Healthy Workers matches objective sensor-data to subjective data from employees. The sensors will measure things like the indoor climate, the CO2 levels, and the occupation degree. At the same time employees can continuously share their opinion on their work environment and their well-being in the Healthy Workers web-app. They can, for example, share how they experience the facilities, whether they are able to concentrate and if they have any physical problems.

All these results, combined with results from a WELL light assessment - performed by a WELL Accredited Professional - will form an advisory report. It consists of insights on how to adapt the working environment to meet the needs of the employees. By continuously measuring, the impact of the adaptations also becomes clear.

Healthy Workers works with a Software as a Service- model. Companies pay a fixed fee per month per square meter. Some well-known clients of the platform are Schiphol Real Estate, Dura Vermeer, Royal FloraHolland, and UWV. Pharos (in Hoofddorp), a business center with several companies in the building, has chosen Healthy Workers too, in their own words, “create the healthiest working community in Europe”.

(*)  Property technology

(**) Bron: CBS

Healthy Workers was founded in 2015 by Boy Lokhoff with B. Ventures, owned by Ricardo van Loenen, Guus Meulendijks and Bas van Veggel (Timeless Investments), as a co-founder. At present, Healthy Workers is already being used at 75.000 square meters of office space in 10 different office buildings in the Netherlands, including Royal FloraHolland and Schiphol.