Stayf
B2B SaaS platform for workforce wellbeing and burnout prevention
Website: https://www.stayf.app/
Cover Block
From the public record
| Name | Stayf |
| Tagline | B2B SaaS platform for workforce wellbeing and burnout prevention |
| Headquarters | London, UK |
| Founded | 2023 |
| Stage | Pre-Seed |
| Business Model | SaaS |
| Industry | HR / Future of Work |
| Technology | Software (Non-AI) |
| Geography | Western Europe |
| Growth Profile | Venture Scale |
| Founding Team | Co-Founders (2) |
| Funding Label | Pre-seed (total disclosed ~$700,000) |
Links
From the public record
- Website: https://www.stayf.app/
- LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/stayf/
The Short Version
From the public record Stayf is a London-based, early-stage B2B SaaS platform attempting to systematize employee wellbeing and burnout prevention for organizations, a market that has gained structural relevance but remains fragmented and difficult to scale [EU-Startups, March 2024]. Founded in 2023 by Max Zhurilo and Kirill Primaka, the company positions itself beyond traditional corporate wellness perks, aiming to integrate employee care into core business processes through a customizable digital platform [stayf.app]. The founding team brings a specific blend of entrepreneurial and venture capital experience, with Zhurilo having founded several ventures in the fitness and endurance space and Primaka coming from a VC and startup operations background [EU-Startups, March 2024].
The company's €650,000 (approximately $700,000) pre-seed round, closed in March 2024 and led by AltaIR Capital, provides capital to validate its model and build out its feature set [EU-Startups, March 2024]. The business model is SaaS-based, targeting progressive workplaces, with an additional, less-defined ambition to operate as a health-insurtech platform that rewards healthy behavior. Over the coming 12-18 months, the key watchpoints will be the translation of claimed high engagement rates into concrete customer traction and contract values, the development of its insurtech proposition, and its ability to differentiate in a competitive field populated by more established players.
Single-source, plausible -- Core facts (founding, funding, team) are confirmed by a single primary source; product claims are sourced from the company website.
Taxonomy Snapshot
| Axis | Classification |
|---|---|
| Stage | Pre-Seed |
| Business Model | SaaS |
| Industry / Vertical | HR / Future of Work |
| Technology Type | Software (Non-AI) |
| Geography | Western Europe |
| Growth Profile | Venture Scale |
| Founding Team | Co-Founders (2) |
| Funding | Pre-seed (~$700,000) |
The Company in Brief
From the public record
Stayf was founded in 2023 by Max Zhurilo and Kirill Primaka, positioning itself as a B2B SaaS platform focused on workforce wellbeing and burnout prevention [EU-Startups, March 2024]. The company is headquartered in London, UK, and operates under a venture-scale growth profile [Crunchbase, retrieved 2026]. Its founding narrative is closely tied to Zhurilo's extensive background in building consumer-facing wellness and endurance sports brands, including I Love Supersport, IRONSTAR, and I LOVE RUNNING, which informs the platform's emphasis on engagement through challenges and gamification [EU-Startups, March 2024].
The company's first significant milestone was a €650,000 (approximately $700,000) pre-seed financing round closed in March 2024 [EU-Startups, March 2024]. This round was led by AltaIR Capital and included participation from Yellow Rocks, Smart Partnership Capital, Somersault Ventures, angel investor Mark Younger, and the Pre-Seed to Succeed program [EU-Startups, March 2024] [The SaaS News, March 2024]. Stayf was reported as the inaugural recipient of support from the Pre-Seed to Succeed program, which provides initial funding and mentorship [EU-Startups, March 2024]. Public milestones beyond the fundraising and the launch of its platform are not yet detailed in available sources.
Confirmed across multiple sources -- Founding details, funding round, and headquarters confirmed by multiple independent publications and the company's own website.
What They Have Built
Mixed sourcing
The product is a customizable digital platform that engages employees in physical and mental wellbeing activities through challenges, gamification, and rewards. The core mechanism involves awarding points for participation in activities, reading content, and completing quizzes, which can be redeemed for rewards [Stayf, retrieved 2026]. The platform offers over 20 activity options, including gym workouts, basketball, meditation, yoga, and wellbeing challenges, alongside interest-based chat rooms for social cohesion [Stayf, retrieved 2026]. The company claims to achieve high engagement rates of 50-80% by designing programs to fit modern, busy lifestyles [LinkedIn, retrieved 2026].
The underlying technology is not detailed in public materials, but the platform's functionality suggests a standard B2B SaaS architecture. The company's positioning has evolved to include a health-insurtech angle, framing the platform as a tool that shifts insurance from treating illness to rewarding healthy behaviour [LinkedIn, retrieved 2026]. This suggests an ambition to integrate with corporate health insurance programs, though specific technical partnerships or APIs are not yet publicly documented.
Confirmed across multiple sources -- Core product features are confirmed by the company's website and public social media posts.
Market Size and Demand
From the public record The market for workplace wellbeing platforms is no longer a discretionary perk but a strategic response to rising operational costs linked to employee burnout and disengagement. While Stayf's specific total addressable market is not quantified in public filings, the broader corporate wellness sector provides a relevant analog, with Grand View Research estimating the global corporate wellness market size at $61.2 billion in 2023 and projecting a compound annual growth rate of 6.0% from 2024 to 2030 [Grand View Research, 2024]. This growth is underpinned by several converging demand drivers.
Primary tailwinds include the persistent rise in reported burnout and mental health challenges post-pandemic, which have elevated wellbeing from an HR initiative to a C-suite concern tied to productivity and retention. A secondary driver is the evolution of employer-sponsored health benefits, where platforms like Stayf position themselves not just as wellness tools but as "health-insurtech" solutions that reward healthy behavior, potentially lowering long-term insurance costs for employers [LinkedIn/vladimir-tarakanov, retrieved 2026]. Regulatory pressure, particularly in Europe with initiatives like the EU's directive on psychosocial risks, is creating a compliance-driven demand for systematic wellbeing tracking and intervention [EU-OSHA].
The competitive landscape includes adjacent and substitute markets. Traditional Employee Assistance Programs (EAPs) offer a baseline of mental health support but lack the engagement-focused, gamified experience of modern SaaS platforms. Broader HRIS suites from vendors like Workday or BambooHR are integrating wellbeing modules, representing a bundling threat. Conversely, the market also sees convergence, as evidenced by Tictrac's partnerships with major insurers like Aviva and Allianz, blending wellness engagement with insurance distribution [TechCrunch, June 2020]. This suggests a path where standalone platforms can become embedded value-adds within larger health and benefits ecosystems.
| Metric | Value |
|---|---|
| Global Corporate Wellness Market (2023) | 61.2 $B |
| Projected CAGR (2024-2030) | 6.0 % |
The analog market sizing indicates a large and growing addressable pool, though the serviceable market for digital, engagement-first platforms like Stayf is a narrower segment within it. The key takeaway is that demand is being pulled from multiple directions: cost containment, talent strategy, and regulatory compliance, which validates the category's expansion beyond a cyclical wellness trend.
Single-source, plausible -- Market sizing is from an analogous, third-party industry report. Specific TAM/SAM for Stayf's precise wedge is not publicly available.
Who Else Is Fighting for This
Mixed sourcing Stayf enters a fragmented market for employee wellbeing tools, positioned as a B2B SaaS platform that aims to integrate systemic care into business processes rather than offer a standalone perk.
| Company | Positioning | Stage / Funding | Notable Differentiator | Source |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Stayf | B2B SaaS for systemic workforce wellbeing and burnout prevention; includes gamification, rewards, and health-insurtech angle. | Pre-seed, $700k raised (March 2024). | Focus on organizational integration and behavior-change rewards; founding team with prior wellness venture and VC experience. | [EU-Startups, March 2024] |
| Tictrac | Employee wellbeing platform with personalized content, campaigns, and incentivized challenges. | Venture-backed; raised $7.5M in 2020, total funding ~$17M. | Established partnerships with major insurers (Aviva, Allianz, Prudential) and a longer operational history since 2010. | [TechCrunch, June 2020] |
| Wellbees | Employee wellbeing platform used by 40+ companies across 17 countries. | Seed stage; raised $2.2M (May 2022). | Strong international footprint (100,000+ users) and founder story tied to personal mental health experience. | [Tech Funding News, May 2022] |
This competitive set illustrates a market divided between established platforms with distribution partnerships and newer entrants focusing on specific wedges. Tictrac represents the incumbent path, having built insurer relationships over a decade. Wellbees shows the scaling potential of a seed-stage company with a broad, multinational user base. Stayf’s defined competitors, MAP Wellbeing and Wellbeing Warrior, represent smaller, regionally focused players often specializing in specific wellbeing metrics or engagement models [LinkedIn]. The broader competitive map includes adjacent substitutes: comprehensive HRIS platforms adding wellbeing modules, point solutions for mental health (e.g., Lyra Health, Modern Health), and corporate fitness reimbursements. For a mid-market HR buyer, Stayf must argue its integrated, reward-based system creates more durable habit change than a module in an HRIS or a discrete mental health benefit.
Stayf’s current defensible edge rests on two pillars. First, the founder pedigree: Max Zhurilo’s background founding consumer fitness brands (I Love Supersport, IRONSTAR) provides authentic domain credibility in behavior change, while Kirill Primaka’s VC experience at Peak State Ventures informs capital strategy [EU-Startups, March 2024]. This combination is uncommon in early-stage wellbeing SaaS. Second, the explicit positioning as a “health-insurtech” platform suggests a model where rewarding healthy behavior could lower insurance costs, a value proposition that aligns with corporate finance objectives beyond HR [LinkedIn]. However, this edge is perishable. The founder advantage must translate into product velocity and early customer references. The insurtech angle remains a claim without public proof points; established players like Tictrac already have formal insurer partnerships, creating a high barrier to replicating that channel.
The company’s most significant exposure is its lack of public commercial traction in a market where competitors cite concrete metrics. Wellbees reports over 100,000 users, and Tictrac has named enterprise partners [Tech Funding News, May 2022] [TechCrunch, June 2020]. Stayf’s cited 50-80% engagement rate is a product metric, not a commercial one [LinkedIn]. Furthermore, the platform’s reliance on gamification and challenges is a well-trodden approach; differentiation must come from superior integration depth or data insights that competitors cannot easily copy. Without a published customer list or contract values, it is difficult to assess whether Stayf can command premium pricing or achieve net revenue retention in the face of substitutes.
The most plausible 18-month scenario hinges on Stayf converting its pre-seed capital into a handful of referenceable enterprise deployments. If the company can secure a flagship customer in the insurance or professional services sector and demonstrate measurable reductions in burnout or insurance claims, it becomes an attractive acquisition target for a benefits administrator or a larger HR tech platform. In that case, Tictrac’s deeper insurer relationships would make it the likely winner in any consolidation wave. Conversely, if Stayf cannot move beyond pilot programs and its insurtech narrative fails to materialize into partnerships, it risks becoming a loser in a crowded segment where Wellbees and others continue to scale geographically. The next funding round will be the clearest signal of which path is unfolding.
Single-source, plausible -- Competitor data is sourced from public coverage and profiles; Stayf's own positioning is confirmed by company materials and funding announcements. Direct, side-by-side feature or pricing comparisons are not publicly available.
Opportunity
From the public record
If Stayf successfully converts its early positioning into a systemic standard for workplace health, the company could capture a significant portion of the multi-billion dollar corporate wellness market.
The headline opportunity is to become the default operating system for preventative health within large enterprises, moving beyond point-solution wellness apps. The evidence that makes this reachable lies in the founding team's background. Co-founder Max Zhurilo's prior ventures, I Love Supersport and IRONSTAR, were built at scale within the consumer fitness and mass-participation event sectors [EU-Startups, March 2024]. This experience in building engaged communities around physical activity provides a tangible foundation for translating those mechanics into a corporate environment. The company's stated aim to "systematically integrate employee care into... business processes" suggests a product ambition aligned with enterprise workflows, not just employee perks [Stayf, retrieved 2026].
Growth scenarios outline specific, concrete paths to scale. The following table details two plausible trajectories.
| Scenario | What happens | Catalyst | Why it's plausible |
|---|---|---|---|
| Health-Insurtech Partnership | Stayf becomes a white-labeled wellness layer for major health insurers, driving user adoption through existing corporate client relationships. | A formal partnership with a global insurer like Aviva or Allianz, similar to those established by competitor Tictrac [TechCrunch, June 2020]. | The company's materials already position it as a platform that shifts insurance "from treating illness to rewarding healthy behaviour" [LinkedIn/vladimir-tarakanov, retrieved 2026]. Investor participation from angels at Dentsu and Bain & Company could provide relevant enterprise and advisory connections [EU-Startups, March 2024]. |
| Land-and-Expand in Professional Services | Stayf achieves deep penetration within the UK and European consulting, legal, and financial services sectors, where burnout rates are high and wellbeing budgets are substantial. | Securing a flagship client from a top-tier firm (e.g., a Magic Circle law firm or Big Four accounting partnership) that mandates platform-wide rollout. | The founders' Oxford and World Economic Forum network, cited in initial coverage, is concentrated within these high-stakes professional ecosystems [EU-Startups, March 2024]. The platform's reported 50-80% engagement rates target the "modern busy personal and corporate lives" typical in these industries [LinkedIn/Stayf, retrieved 2026]. |
What compounding looks like for Stayf is a data-driven product flywheel. Early enterprise deployments generate anonymized, aggregated data on which wellness challenges and rewards drive the highest sustained engagement and correlate with positive health outcomes. This dataset, proprietary to Stayf, would allow the platform to refine its AI-driven personalization, creating more effective programs. More effective programs justify higher price points and reduce customer churn. A lower churn rate and proven ROI, in turn, make the platform more attractive to the next tier of risk-averse, large enterprise buyers, accelerating sales cycles. While still early, the company's claim of achieving 50-80% engagement suggests the initial mechanics of the flywheel,participation driving data, which informs better challenges,are already being stress-tested [LinkedIn/Stayf, retrieved 2026].
The size of the win can be contextualized by looking at comparable outcomes. Tictrac, a direct competitor, secured £13.5 million ($17 million) in total funding by 2020 and established partnerships with major insurers [TechCrunch, June 2020]. A successful execution of the Health-Insurtech Partnership scenario could see Stayf achieve a similar strategic position. In a more ambitious outcome, if Stayf captured even a single-digit percentage of the global corporate wellness software market,a market projected by some analysts to exceed $60 billion by 2030,its valuation could reach several hundred million dollars. For a concrete scenario, if Stayf became the preferred vendor for a specific vertical like European professional services, serving 500 firms at an average contract value of $50,000, it would generate $25 million in annual recurring revenue. At a revenue multiple of 8x-10x, common for growth-stage SaaS, this implies a potential enterprise value of $200-$250 million (scenario, not a forecast).
Single-source, plausible -- The opportunity analysis is based on confirmed product claims, founder backgrounds, and competitor benchmarks. The specific growth scenarios and valuation math are forward-looking inferences based on these public facts.
Sources
From the public record
[EU-Startups, March 2024] London-based digital wellbeing platform Stayf raises €650k to prevent employees from burnout | https://www.eu-startups.com/2024/03/london-based-digital-wellbeing-platform-stayf-raises-e650k-to-prevent-employees-from-burnout/
[The SaaS News, March 2024] Stayf Closes €650,000 in Pre-Seed Round | https://www.thesaasnews.com/news/stayf-closes-650-000-in-pre-seed-round/
[Crunchbase, retrieved 2026] Stayf | https://www.crunchbase.com/organization/stayf
[Stayf, retrieved 2026] Stayf , Corporate Wellbeing Program | https://www.stayf.app/
[LinkedIn, retrieved 2026] Max Zhurilo - Co-Founder at Stayf - wellbeing solutions for progressive workplaces. | https://www.linkedin.com/in/zhurilo/
[LinkedIn, retrieved 2026] Vlad Tarakanov - Ghirardelli Chocolate Company | https://www.linkedin.com/in/vladimir-tarakanov/
[LinkedIn, retrieved 2026] Georgy Muratov - Ericsson | https://www.linkedin.com/in/gmuratov/
[LinkedIn, retrieved 2026] Tom Rees-Davies - Perlego | https://www.linkedin.com/in/tomreesdavies/
[LinkedIn, retrieved 2026] Stayf Company Page | https://www.linkedin.com/company/stayf/
[TechCrunch, June 2020] Tictrac secures $7.5M to expand employee wellbeing platform as WFH balloons | https://techcrunch.com/2020/06/02/tictrac-secures-7-5m-to-expand-employee-wellbeing-platform-as-wfh-baloons/
[Tech Funding News, May 2022] Employee wellbeing platform Wellbees, led by a female serial entrepreneur, pockets $2.2M after UK launch | https://techfundingnews.com/employee-wellbeing-platform-wellbees-led-by-a-female-serial-entrepreneur-pockets-2-2m-after-uk-launch/
[Grand View Research, 2024] Corporate Wellness Market Size, Share & Trends Analysis Report | https://www.grandviewresearch.com/industry-analysis/corporate-wellness-market
Articles about Stayf
- Stayf's Gamified Wellbeing Platform Starts With the Gym and the Chat Room — The London-based startup, backed by $700,000 in pre-seed funding, is betting that structured rewards can turn corporate wellness from a perk into a process.