Irish company Spectrum Wellness is in the process of raising €4 million through a mixture of venture capital and debt to fund its expansion into new markets.
The employee health and wellness service provider, which intends to launch in the UK later this year, announced 100 new jobs at its Dublin headquarters on Tuesday in a move that will treble the size of the company.
Speaking to The Irish Times, managing director Stephen Costello said the company also intended to launch in the US and Canada by the end of next year, and into mainland Europe by 2020.
Founded in 2012, Spectrum offers evidence-based health and wellness services, including gym management and counselling, to 175,000 employees across 1,000 companies in Ireland. Clients include Aer Lingus, Dalata, Google, Microsoft, Oracle, Bank of Ireland and Iarnród Éireann.
Mr Costello said the company was seeking to raise at least €2.5 million through VC funding. An Enterprise Ireland client company, Spectrum has self-funded to date.
The company is forecasting turnover of €4 million this year, with secured contracts pushing that to €7 million by the end of 2019.
“There is more competition in the UK, but at the same time companies there spend more per head of population on health and wellness than they do in Ireland. Also, there are a lot of digital-only service providers there while we have both a really strong digital platform and will also offer on-the-ground services,” said Mr Costello.
Highly fragmented
Closer to home, he said while Spectrum also has competitors here, the market was highly fragmented.
“What gives us the competitive edge is that we are offering a full range of services which makes it easier for clients to come up with a collective message on health and wellness and doesn’t diminish their spend in the area.”
Mr Costello said the new roles announced on Tuesday would be in the areas of account management, marketing, operations, product development and mental health case management.
The company is part of the Spectrum Health group, which was established by Stuart and Anne McGoldrick in 2007.
