As one of Europe’s leading venture capital firms, Balderton has invested in more than 250 companies in the last 20+ years. The firm prides itself in partnering with the strongest entrepreneurs and has committed to founder wellbeing and performance in support of sustainable company building. This ethos also extends to their own firm, investing in the health and wellbeing of its own employees, both on the investment and operations side. Through regular engagement surveys and feedback loops, Balderton focuses on supporting team members in the areas that matter most to them.

It was during this process last year that the People team at Balderton identified a growing need for reproductive health support among employees. Committed to employee wellbeing and support across all aspects of health, the Balderton team quickly began considering reproductive health benefits providers, which led to the partnership with Fertifa.          

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The Balderton Challenge: Finding an inclusive and accessible fertility and family-forming benefits provider, for all of their employees

Balderton is known for being family-friendly, and when conversations about reproductive health began, the firm already had a generous and inclusive enhanced parental leave policy in place. Balderton quickly partnered with Fertifa to provide comprehensive reproductive health support and launched the benefit in May 2023.    

When exploring the reproductive health benefits market, one thing that was important to Chantal and the rest of the People team was to ensure that the firm could provide a benefit that was fully inclusive.

They felt that if they were investing in fertility benefits, they also wanted to ensure the same level of support for other areas of reproductive health, including pregnancy, maternity care, women’s health, menopause, and men’s reproductive health.      

Balderton was looking for a benefit that covered the whole spectrum of reproductive health challenges. After speaking with a range of providers, Chantal and her People team decided that Fertifa aligned most with what they were looking for: A comprehensive benefits provider that offered employee support for all reproductive health challenges, including the ability to offer colleagues an allowance to support costs of treatment.

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Fertifa ticked all the boxes and enabled Balderton to offer a fully comprehensive reproductive health benefit to all of its employees

Balderton was clear that as a firm it was looking for a benefits provider that would become a trusted partner and educational resource for their employees.

The firm loved that Fertifa could offer both clinically-led support, via the in-house clinical team, as well as access to a suite of educational materials on the most complex and common reproductive health challenges.

"Fertifa was the best-placed benefits provider to support us as a European firm." - Chantal

As a London based firm with investors based in Europe, Chantal wanted to ensure there was a solution that could support employees in Austria, France, Germany, and the UK. Balderton needed a provider that offered a global approach and could provide support and advice internationally, as well as having the ability to process fertility treatment allowances in different currencies.

Fertifa’s international clinic network and tech-enabled platform are ideally suited to the Balderton team’s requirements. Through the Fertifa patient app, employees have access to their Fertifa benefit, no matter where they are based.

"It’s absolutely worth the investment and the benefit has been well received by the team." - Chantal

Ensuring that there was something for everyone in a reproductive health benefit was important to Balderton. The team was looking for a benefit that covered all life stages and all reproductive health challenges, for all people.

We are proud to be supporting Balderton employees with: 

- Fertility treatment and family-forming journeys - everything from egg-freezing to IVF to surrogacy

- Menopause and perimenopause symptoms, including lifestyle advice and prescriptions for HRT

- Women's health issues, such as PCOS, endometriosis, fibroids, and contraception

- Men's reproductive, hormonal and sexual health concerns, which include early detection of male-related cancers such as testicular and prostate cancer

- Pregnancy and postpartum support, everything including preconception, antenatal care, labour and delivery support and 6 weeks postpartum

"The team have found the app easy to navigate and use." – Chantal

For the Balderton team, it was critically important that the platform was accessible and convenient. Balderton’s employees have a busy work life and the People team understand the stress people experience when going through any health challenge.

Here is the impact they’ve seen so far

"Zoe was fantastic, always available and on hand to help with the launch announcements and comms. She has been a pleasure to work with." - Chantal

The Fertifa launch process meant that all Balderton employees were aware of and understood their entitlements. It also created a sense of excitement for the new benefit, with more than 1 in 4 Balderton employees having registered with Fertifa via the app.

Chantal has noticed improved staff engagement and employees more openly talking about their family-forming journeys and their fertility challenges. Offering Fertifa has also been beneficial for attracting talent and putting the firm’s family-first values into practice. The People team has already had positive conversations about the firm’s reproductive health support and family-friendly policies during employment negotiations and on-boarding.

Overall, the cultural impact has been fantastic. Offering Fertifa as an employee benefit sets Balderton apart in an increasingly competitive market, whilst also demonstrating the genuine care that Balderton has for its employees.

Want to learn more about how Fertifa could help your company? We’d love to talk 💜