Portugal-based hrtech Coverflex raises €5 million in pre-seed round to remodel employee compensation

Portugal’s flexible compensation solution Coverflex has raised €5 million in pre-seed funding and seeks to reduce corporate costs and maximise employee’s earning potential.

The raise was led by Breega, and saw participation from the 200M Fund and unnamed Portuguese angel investors.

The funding is expected to fuel international rollout and recruitment efforts.

“The way we work is changing, but compensation, salary, bonus, equity, and benefits, has not evolved for decades. The current rigid, one-size-fits-all approach is outdated and fails to satisfy the needs of the modern workforce,” comments Coverflex CEO and co-founder Miguel Amaro. “As entrepreneurs, having built and directed companies in different industries, we came up against the same problems time and again when dealing with employee compensation: multiple providers, a lack of transparency, reliable information, and flexibility created a less than optimal experience for both us as employers and our teams.”

Founded in 2019 by Luís Rocha (ex-TUI Musement), Miguel Santo Amaro (ex-Uniplaces), Nuno Pinto (ex-Kide) and Rui Carvalho (ex-Unbabel), Coverflex is addressing this cookie-cutter problem. The customisable solution allows employers to go beyond the “traditional” and powers up health insurance, meal allowance, fringe benefits, and discount programmes.

Dubbed “Compensation as a service”, Coverflex offers customers, and their employees in turn, a VISA card, app, and company-defined budgets and options. In addition to cost savings, Coverflex is also positioning its service as a recruitment tool, hoping to attract the best talent through offering such flexibility.

It would appear that this service has not gone unnoticed. Even at pre-seed stage Coverflex has attracted a notable client base including PwC, Bolt, Emma - The Sleep Company, Landing.Jobs, Startup Lisboa, Rows, Paul Stricker, Velocidi, Dott, and Unbabel.

“Offering some kind of benefits policy to complement salary has always been a part of our goals — it’s a fiscally efficient solution that makes sense for us as a company. But we were wasting a lot of time on day-to-day administrative tasks and managing the details'', adds Rita Franca, Unbabel’s Head of People. “Coverflex changes that. It’s a very easy solution to implement, understand and manage, which is such a relief. We know we're giving our people the best we can while managing our resources efficiently.”