17 December 2019

    Improving well‑being in the world

    Limeade is taking care of employees

    Delano Gallagher (CFA)

    Senior Investment Analyst

    Delano Gallagher (CFA)

    Senior Investment Analyst

     Many millennials (and for that matter persons from all age cohorts) may get the feeling they are living their own real life account of the 1990s cult classic, Office Space. In the movie, the computer programmer Peter Gibbons leads a few of his colleagues to down tools after becoming frustrated and disillusioned in their jobs. While the antics that follow are no doubt on the extreme side, the cause of their unhappiness likely resonates with many employees today. Employees want to feel appreciated. 

    Enter Limeade.

    Limeade was co-founded in 2006 by Henry Albrecht with a mission to, “Improve well-being in the world.”

    Limeade is now a leading provider of employee experience software. It helps businesses take better care of their employees. By improving employee workplace experience Limeade believes organisations will better attract and retain talent, boost employee engagement, improve productivity and reduce absenteeism. This has benefits for both employer and employee alike. Limeade has found that within organisations that use its core well-being product non-users are three times more likely to leave than those who engage with the product. Users of the product miss 70% fewer days than non-users.

    Limeade’s core well-being product enables employees and the organisations they work for to asses, track and act to improve employee well-being. Limeade collects employee data from proprietary assessments & surveys, integrated third party devices (like Fitbits), and blood tests. It uses the data to provide employees personalised recommendations to improve their physical, financial and mental well-being. Limeade has also developed activities and challenges that are implemented at a corporate, team and individual level to incentivise employees to achieve their goals.  

    Limeade has 176 organisations and 2.4m employees using its product. Limeade focuses on organisations that employ 5,000+ staff and recently signed a contract with Microsoft to roll out the well-being product across Microsoft’s global workforce of 140,000+. Maybe if Initech, the fictional IT company in Office Space had signed up for Limeade’s products it wouldn’t have had Peter and his team beat-up on the office printer (and ultimately burn down the Initech offices!)

    Limeade’s well-being product can be used by many different types of businesses and in many different geographies. Its largest customers are the State of Washington, Microsoft, American Airlines and Southwest Airlines, Honda US, Alinna Healthcare, and the Swiss robotics/power systems company ABB. We expect Limeade will add many more organisations to this list in the future.

    We are excited to have added Limeade to out Australian portfolios through the December IPO.

    Heading into the New Year hopefully more companies can live by Limeade’s values, “Delight our customers…Speak plainly...Be it…Own it...We’re a team. Anything is possible.”