Kota launches its employee benefits software into the UK market, following €5m fundraise

Kota is led by Patrick O’Boyle, Luke Mackey and Deepak Baliga

Adrian Weckler

A Dublin-based start-up which offers an employee benefits software platform has done a deal with health insurer Vitality to enter the UK market.

The deal means that Kota, formerly called Yonder, now lets companies cover health and retirement benefits for UK-based staff.

The company, which recently raised €5m in a seed funding round, says that it wants to cover more of the European market.

Kota was founded by chief executive Luke Mackey, Patrick O’Boyle and Deepak Baliga. Its customers include Dublin gifting start-up &Open, Spotlight Oral Care, Unmind and Fonoa.

The founders were recently named in a Forbes 30-Under-30 list.

Meanwhile, 15 Cork start-up founders have completed Enterprise Ireland’s ‘New Frontiers’ programme in MTU’s Rubicon Centre. The start-ups include Volta Robotics, Wizard & Grace, Ostomy Cube, The Blume Method, The Feed Ducks Initiative, GlishArabic, Origin Xero, The Mind Mechanic, Gabro Games, LA Edit and Clearsight Decision Support Systems.

Each of the group leaders undertook a six-month acceleration programme and got seed funding of €15,000, mentoring and office space.

Separately, Ulysses Neuroscience announced that it has raised €500,000 in investment from Enterprise Ireland and private investment company Growing Capital.

The five-year-old firm offers patients and pharmaceutical companies research services around psychiatric diseases and neurological disorders.

The Cherrywood-based company is currently hiring for preclinical and clinical neuroscience positions in the psychedelic, psychiatric and rare neurodevelopmental research space.

“With a portfolio of globally based pharma clients and an annual revenue of over €1m, we have been able to break through the contract research organisation market and are helping a range of industries,” said Dr Massimiliano Bianchi, CEO of Ulysses Neuroscience.