Launching the UK’s First Workertech Impact Investment Fund

Building on five years of proven impact, we’re launching the UK’s first dedicated investment fund for technology that improves low-paid work

We’re really proud to be announcing the first close of the UK’s first Workertech impact investment fund today—a £9m fund to support innovation and technology improving work for those in low pay.

The Ventures activities of the Resolution Foundation were set up to address some key issues affecting work:

• Good work is vital to living standards – it affects our financial position, but also mental and physical health
• Access to widespread good work requires more than policy change – as important as that is. It needs people and employers to change and be supported to do things differently.
• Those using technology to transform work and employment tend to focus on higher-paid jobs, desk-based and knowledge work, and benefits to employers, often neglecting the bottom half of earners and the impact on workers.
• The nature of startups and early-stage investments means that there are well-known biases in who gets to found companies and who gets to invest in them.

We wanted to create a fund that prioritised positive social impact, that welcomed founders from all backgrounds, and that could seek out great ideas that could benefit workers as well as having a strong business model.

Proven impact at scale

Over the last five years, we’ve demonstrated that this approach works. Our portfolio of Workertech investments has reached over 358,000 workers, with more than 20,000 actively using our portfolio companies’ services to improve their working lives. Most importantly, over 5,600 workers have experienced transformational changes in their pay, prospects, power, or wellbeing—proving that purpose-driven technology can create meaningful change.

Our first portfolio exit last year—Breakroom’s acquisition by U.S. platform ZipRecruiter—showed that worker-focused ventures can build sustainable businesses while creating lasting social impact.

Our focus is clear:

We invest in companies that use technology and data to enhance working lives across four key areas:

Better Pay: Supporting innovations that increase income through job moves, promotions, successful campaigns for higher wages, or offer higher pay standards compared to industry practices.

Improved Prospects: Backing platforms that help workers complete training, acquire new skills, secure work in sectors with better progression opportunities, or access more secure working hours.

Greater Power: Investing in solutions that improve workers’ ability to take individual or collective action, create channels for worker voice, and help secure positive changes from employers or policy makers.

Enhanced Wellbeing: Supporting technologies that offer better working conditions, provide support for excluded or disadvantaged groups, and reduce negative impacts on physical and mental health.

We know that these ventures exist, and are excited to bring our existing portfolio into the new fund. You can find out more about them and the impact they’ve created to date in our most recent impact report.

Building an inclusive ecosystem

We’re proud that 50% of our portfolio founders are women and 25% are from BAME backgrounds—demonstrating our commitment to supporting diverse entrepreneurs who understand the challenges facing low-paid workers. Through pre-investment grants, mentoring, and flexible funding structures (including quasi-equity for cooperatives and social enterprises), we’re creating pathways for those with lived experience of these issues to lead solutions.

A coalition for change

This fund represents more than capital—it’s backed by a leading coalition of mission-aligned investors including Resolution Trust, Joseph Rowntree Foundation, Ufi VocTech Trust, and Friends Provident Foundation. Together, we’re demonstrating that strategic investment can drive meaningful social progress while maintaining financial sustainability.

Looking ahead

With the new fund, we’re targeting 50 investments over five years, focusing on pre-seed and seed stage companies with the potential to reach hundreds of thousands of UK workers. Each investment is measured against agreed impact objectives, ensuring transparency and accountability to our charitable mission.

This has been a long journey, and there are a lot of people who have supported this idea (and me!) along the way that need to be thanked—and not all of whom can be named here. But I have to mention Gavin Kelly, former executive chair of the Resolution Foundation (now chief executive of the Nuffield Foundation), who created this area of work, recruited me, and has supported it every step of the way. This is his vision as much as anyone’s. Huge thanks also go to the Foundation’s board of Trustees, who have been hugely patient and supportive of this endeavour, as well as all of our investors.

As the Foundation comes up to its 20th anniversary this year, this feels like a great milestone to celebrate, as well as a marker of things to come.

To learn more about Resolution Ventures and the Workertech Fund, please contact Louise Marston, Director of Ventures, at louise.marston@resolutionfoundation.org.