Gurgaon based HR Tech Startup Advantage Club has raised $1.7 Mn in a fresh round led by Y-Combinator, Broom Ventures, Liquid.vc, and Kunal Shah. Other leading angel investors from the US, Middle East and Southeast Asia also participated in the funding round.

Launched in 2016, Advantage Club is a global platform for employee engagement and financial wellness, with benefits like perks, rewards and early wage access on a single platform. So far, the company is live with 370+ clients across 60+ countries including Concentrix, Teleperformance, Hexaware, EY, Target and more. Advantage Club is currently focused on India, SEA and MENA regions, chasing a $13 Bn revenue opportunity. 

With the new fundraise, Advantage Club is gearing to take the platform to an unexplored new customer base internationally, especially in SEA, MENA and North America markets and add financial wellness products like Early Wage Access to its existing comprehensive employee engagement platform.

"As we go global, we are excited about having investors with global outreach. They not only bring their network but more importantly bring their learnings from different markets," said  Smiti Bhatt Deorah, COO and Co-Founder at Advantage Club. 

The company will use the influx of fresh funds to bolster its already flourishing international business and unlock new avenues of growth. At present, the company has operations in over 60+ countries, including India, Philippines, Malaysia, Vietnam, Indonesia, Egypt, USA, UAE, and others. 

"Advantage Club has emerged as the leading employee engagement platform in the country and we are growing 20% MoM, this growth has come on the back of re-inventing the wheel around employee benefits and engagement by building deep engagement products further personalized according to each user's behavior," added Sourabh Deorah, CEO and Co-Founder at Advantage Club. 

With the latest round of funding and plans to foray into newer markets, Advantage Club moves closer to its vision to evolve as a single global platform for employee engagement and financial wellness.

The concept of wellness has been around for a long time. However, in the last 18 months its importance has grown further. As talent priorities their health and overall well-being, employers also focus more on it as part of the their overall EX strategy. McKinsey & Company estimates the global wellness market at more than $1.5 Tn, with annual growth of 5 to 10 percent. When we talk about wellness, it is not only mental wellness and physical fitness gaining attention, but with more awareness and a holistic view into wellness, even the global financial wellness program market is expected to grow at a CAGR of 16.5 percent from 2021 to 2028. As financial wellness programs are increasingly adopted by not only large organisations but also SMEs, Advantage Club has an opportunity to grow. However, it faces competition in the emerging market and to face it, the HR tech firm must focus on product innovation to drive market expansion.