UK-based Origin raises $21M Series A to tackle fragmented employee benefits

British startup Origin has launched out of stealth with $21 million in Series A funding. The round was led by Felix Capital, with participation from Acadian Ventures, Notion Capital, and a angel investors from across the HR, tech, and enterprise sectors.

The company is setting out to modernise the sprawling global benefits industry, which it estimates to be worth $45 billion. According to Origin, multinational corporations spend hundreds of millions annually on employee benefits but lack the tools to manage that spend strategically or efficiently.

Large companies typically operate in dozens of jurisdictions, working with hundreds of local vendors and providers for benefits like pensions, insurance, health plans, and more. The data generated across this ecosystem – contracts, coverage policies, usage metrics – is often unstructured, disconnected, and impossible to analyse in real-time. 

Clients include Pfizer, Comcast, EA, BCG, and bp. The new capital will support further international expansion across Europe and the US, as well as continued development of Origin’s data intelligence engine and platform features.

Origin’s core product is Cuido, which the company describes as the first “Artificial Benefits Intelligence” system. Cuido consolidates and analyses data across contracts, allowances, commissions, and vendor relationships.

“We created Origin because global benefits teams urgently need clarity, efficiency, and control,” said Chris Bruce, CEO and Co-founder of Origin. “Our AI-powered platform, Origin, turns vast, fragmented benefits data into a single source of actionable insights, enabling immediate cost savings, strategic decision-making, and better employee outcomes. Origin empowers HR leaders to transition from administrative complexity to strategic clarity, optimizing one of their organization’s largest investments.”

“The best thing about working with Origin is that it’s a conversation,” said Amy Manning, Senior Director, Global Retirement & International Benefits at Pfizer. “We were able to, in a very short period of time, get to the core information we needed on contracts that flowed into very complicated retirement plans, understand what we needed to do to change and how it impacted colleagues. It was a program that was going to take us about six months without Origin, and it took us two weeks. It’s really improved my decision-making.”

“At Felix, our mission is to back founders who are empowering new ways of living and working — it’s at the heart of what we do,” said Antoine Nussenbaum, Co-Founder and Partner at Felix Capital. “The benefits space is behind in AI adoption, and we believe Origin is uniquely positioned to lead the way… With Cuido and its AI-powered benefits intelligence, Origin is not only empowering benefits leaders and employees, but also building the kind of forward-thinking product that moves the world forward.”