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Patch Places
High street community clubs
- 1-20 employees
- Hospitality
- B2B
- Flexible working
- Networking
- Community
- Marylebone, London, UK
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Company mission
To create opportunity for people, work and communities on every UK high street. We create beautiful spaces for work, lifestyle, events and community gathering for a Work Near Home world of less commuting, more community.
63% female employees
29% employee growth in 12 months
Our take
In the past, powerful working hubs and the innovation that these bring have been limited to major cities. However, the Covid Pandemic and the development of cheap digital tools has challenged this idea, with many people getting used to working from home for a considerable amount of time. This has made many people realise the cost of a commute to their finances, stress levels, schedules, and time.
Patch believes that the ‘central office’ is a 19th century technology. Whilst they can be great places for collaboration and relationships, they aren't needed all the time. Patch want to introduce a new category: Work Near Home. This concept is geared to the growing “hybrid working” movement, placing an emphasis on individual needs, empowering local networks, and enabling impact of technology for access to opportunity.
The company is establishing a decentralized workspace by building co-working clubs across commuter towns in the UK. They take empty local high street shops and under-utilised landmark buildings, and turn them into “collaborative cultural spaces”. Having raised seed funding from a number of leading U.K. angel investors, Patch are focused on opening more sites in the year ahead.
Kirsty
Company Specialist at Welcome to the Jungle
Benefits
- 24 days holiday + birthday + 8 days Bank Holidays
- Flexible and remote working on a custom needs basis
- Personal health and wellness budget
- Cycle to work
- Regular staff events
- Private healthcare
Company values
- Near: Wherever possible, choose local (suppliers, people etc). Ask what is best for our customers and their communities. Don’t be a cookie cutter, be relevant
- Balance: Work and personal needs should be in concert, not in competition. Prioritise the personal - mental health, family and physical wellbeing, and the sustainable sourcing of materials
- Built to last: We leave a place better than how we found it. We choose the right thing over the fast thing, We build this for our grandchildren
Funding (2 rounds)
Aug 2022
$3.7m
SERIES A
Apr 2021
$1m
Total funding: $4.7m
This company has top investors
Leadership
Freddie Fforde
(Founder)Previously Head of Operations at Movebubble, and Chief of Staff at OYO. Was part of the EF9 Cohort at Entrepreneur First in 2017.
Diversity, Equity & Inclusion at Patch Places
- We are committed to building a company that represents the communities we serve, representing the best and broadest of backgrounds, interests and perspectives. We're still small but we have adopted these values from day 1, reflected in the investors we sought to include, and the attitude of our team members today.
- Majority of our investors are from a URM background, and 30% are female
- We run a Diversity Working Group, led by a representative group of our investors and with all employees invited to join
- We are developing an Impact Strategy, including registering for B Corp status, and enabling diverse teams is a key aspect of this
- We have a blind scoring process and have started implementing name blind applications (we intend to launch education blind soon)
Articles
Endorsements
All
Opportunities to learn (4)
Inspiring mission (4)
Growing fast (2)
Career progression (1)
My opinions are valued (1)
The Patch team live and breathe the mission and the values are taken seriously. This makes working there fulfilling. But it also really helps with alignment and everyone pulling in the same direction.
Marketing
Inspiring mission
Aug 2022
The company is clearly going places and has a high level of ambition. This makes for a fast moving environment (far from boring) and also means there’s lots of responsibility handed out to everyone. Everyone has a chance to shape the company in a meaningful way.
Marketing
Growing fast
Aug 2022
The culture is highly collaborative and the senior leadership believe strongly in personal development. You’ll also learn lots at Patch from spending time working alongside a group of ambitious and switched on people.
Marketing
Opportunities to learn
Aug 2022
Patch offers a hugely exciting, dynamic environment to work in with a big focus on the growth and professional development of individual team members. It's challenging and rewarding in equal measure, but in the couple of months I've been at Patch, it's safe to say that I've learnt more in that time than I did in a year at my previous company.
Marketing
Career progression
Aug 2022
Patch's mission is all about unlocking opportunities for people, work and community. The number of people we have the potential to help is vast and to me, this feels like a very worthwhile ambition to be pursuing.
Marketing
Inspiring mission
Aug 2022
Patch's emphasis on professional development amongst employees is unlike anything else I've experienced in previous jobs. One of the earliest conversations I can recall was around how I wanted to grow within Patch, and within weeks of joining I had been introduced to multiple people who were intent on helping me achieve those goals.
Marketing
Opportunities to learn
Aug 2022
Patch is a purpose-driven company aiming to change our work-life balance for the better. For me, working at Patch has been a brilliant opportunity to balance my personal goals to work at an ambitious startup and also support positive change in areas spanning from the future of work to inclusive growth & access to opportunity. It also a really exciting time to be at Patch as we start scaling our vision!
Product
Opportunities to learn
Aug 2022
Patch has an ambitious mission to create opportunities for work, people, and communities on every UK high street. I have been inspired by the scale of the vision and the potential to be part of a team creating meaningful long-term change!
Product
Inspiring mission
Aug 2022
We're an early-stage start-up with huge ambitions. It's exciting to be part of that journey and from a personal perspective, it means my work is really helping shape our trajectory as we scale.
Product
Growing fast
Aug 2022
At Patch there are lots of opportunities to have your voice heard which is really exciting at such a critical time for the business' growth. We are a small, but growing team, where it's so important to discuss different ideas whatever your role or level. Freddie really values our opinions and feedback.
Operations & Strategy
My opinions are valued
Jul 2022
Patch's mission is really exciting and a huge selling point of the business. We're a coworking space but not as you typically know them with community at the core, and that's what makes working for Patch so special.
Operations & Strategy
Inspiring mission
Jul 2022
As a startup, we continue to navigate our way through different scenarios. These moments empower us with new knowledge, always pushing us to be thinking on how we can improve our product and overall company mission. Freddie is also incredibly dedicated to his team's personal development which is great to see in a company so young.
Operations & Strategy
Opportunities to learn
Jul 2022
