Switzerland-based ESG platform Alaya acquired by Canadian unicorn

Alaya joins forces with Canada-based Benevity to offer companies around the world an unrivalled turnkey solution to corporate giving, volunteering and community investment

GENEVA, Switzerland, Dec. 09, 2021 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Benevity, Inc., a global leader in ESG technology, today announced the acquisition of Alaya, a purpose-driven employee engagement SaaS platform. With more than 90 clients around the world, Alaya enables businesses to engage employees in volunteering and positive actions through its innovative technology.

Based in Switzerland, with a presence in Spain, the United Kingdom, Germany, France and Singapore, Alaya is the leading European provider with expertise in localized volunteering and giving content, a scalable platform and a strong track record of client delight. Benevity is a global category leader, helping over 700 of the world’s most iconic brands engage their stakeholders in ESG, purpose and social impact initiatives. Together, they deliver the market’s only holistic suite of corporate purpose solutions to companies around the world.

The deal is expected to close December 15, 2021.  

“Alaya was founded with the goal of putting purpose at the center of every company on the planet. By uniting with a visionary company like Benevity, we are getting one step closer to doing that,” said André Abreu, Alaya’s Chief Executive Officer and Co-Founder. “Alaya’s international expertise and engaging user experience, combined with Benevity’s industry-leading ESG technology will enable companies and their stakeholders to bring more positive action to the world every day.”

With Alaya’s fresh and engaging UX, European and Asian footprint and localized volunteering activities, and Benevity’s payroll giving, grants management and customer engagement solutions, more companies will have access to a single global partner who can help them bring purpose to life.

Alaya will become Alaya by Benevity and CEO André Abreu will transition to a new role at Benevity as President, International.

“Benevity is known for bringing bold vision and innovative solutions to the corporate social responsibility space,” said Kelly Schmitt, Benevity’s Chief Executive Officer. “The ESG-related technology sector is growing rapidly and its importance in helping attract, retain and engage employees and customers is critical. Alaya’s localized expertise in Europe and Asia, its reputation for fantastic client service and its passionate, mission-driven culture are the perfect complement to Benevity.”

“When we founded Benevity we were intentional about trying to create cultural impact at scale—both within companies and in broader society—mainly because collective action is required to solve most of the world’s most pressing issues,” said Bryan de Lottinville, Benevity’s Founder and Executive Chairperson. “This joining of forces with a like-minded international star comes at a time when ESG and social impact are becoming paramount to investors, consumers, employees and the public looking for business to drive measurable social and environmental change. Together with Alaya, Benevity is poised to deliver hyper-local solutions for even more companies across the globe.” 

Benevity is a category leader, having pioneered software that enables companies to engage their customers and employees to support the causes they care about, manage their community investments and grants, match employee donations, engage employees in volunteering, and measure social and business impact on a global scale.

The acquisition of Alaya builds on Benevity’s rapid growth in the past year, including investments by software investor, Hg, TPG’s The Rise Fund, and Generation Investment Management.

“The role of purpose in business is a trend that is accelerating worldwide. Whilst getting to know Benevity and the amazing work it does across this sector, we have recognised other software businesses in Europe that are also making waves. This combination brings together world-class talent and solutions that will deliver even more Goodness and value to customers across all sizes and geographies. We set out to help Benevity and their mission to become even more pervasive and impactful and we’re delighted that, so soon after our partnership with Benevity began, we’re able to use our European heritage to do exactly that,” said Nic Humphries, Senior Partner at Hg.

About Alaya
Alaya is a global software provider enabling companies to build a purpose-driven culture and engage employees to make an impact, one act at a time. Headquartered in Switzerland, Alaya has a presence in the UK, Germany, France, Spain and Singapore. More than 90 clients partner with Alaya to easily manage their purpose-driven CSR and employee engagement programs, through volunteering, giving or taking simple actions to support sustainability, diversity, equity and inclusion and wellbeing.  For more information, visit alayagood.com.

About Benevity
Benevity, a certified B Corporation, is a leader in global corporate purpose software, providing the only integrated suite of community investment and employee, customer and nonprofit engagement solutions. Recognized as one of Fortune’s Impact 20, Benevity offers cloud solutions that power purpose for many iconic brands in ways that better attract, retain and engage today’s diverse workforce, embed social action into their customer experiences and positively impact their communities. With software that is available in 22 languages, Benevity has processed nearly $8 billion in donations and 43 million hours of volunteering time to support 326,000 nonprofits worldwide. The company’s solutions also facilitated 530,000 positive actions and awarded 1.2 million grants worth $12 billion. For more information, visit www.benevity.com.  

Media Contact: Kristin O’Connell│ Archetype for Benevity│ +1 9143742147│ Kristin.oconnell@archetype.co

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