Herculean 1A
The sportainment and corporate wellbeing platform
€460,300
total amount raised in round
- Backed by over 120 investors
This campaign has been closed
Description
Herculean.coop
Herculean is the sportainment and corporate wellbeing platform that emerged in Belgium in 1999 from the Hercules Trophy, and it gradually grew into an established value with thousands of business fans in Europe, the Middle East, Africa and America. Herculean is a cooperation that believes in the power of fans and in sustainable growth. Hercules Projects and Hercules Academy were established in addition to Hercules Trophy.
Problem
Various generations on the shop floor with a single collective focus. A very difficult job for companies in a market that is changing increasingly faster. Managers understand the power of people better and better. They do not know how to provide wellbeing programmes that cater for all target groups. Besides, they are facing a fragmented wellbeing market and often cannot see the wood for the trees.
Idea
Interconnecting all generations on the shop floor is a virtually impossible task, and yet Herculean succeeds in getting through to them via the power of gamification and in making company messages resonate with their heart. We use seriousness and fun throughout Hercules Trophy, Hercules Projects and Hercules Academy to ensure that all employees are pulling in the same direction. In a fragmented wellbeing market, Herculean therefore positions itself as a confidential partner for companies and integrates the various providers into a single solution for the customer.
Hercules Trophy: come as a company, leave as a team
The coolest intercompany team festival on the planet. Thousands of fans all across the world annually participate to network, to show their brand, to strengthen their teams and to throw a party. There is not any event in the world that brings company teams together in a competition — an all-embracing festival — that does not require you to be good at sports.
Hercules Academy: happy employees, productive employees
Our fast-changing world is struck by a burn-out plague. We are developing a unique burn-out protocol to help people in a relatively short period of time. Additionally, we use tailor-made programmes to give companies preventive guidance on the shop floor. Whereas traditional health programmes focus on the sports freaks, we offer holistic programmes that are based on four modules — mental, physical, nutrition, social — to make sure that ALL employees are healthy and in balance.
Hercules Projects: work hard, play hard
Our customers ask if we could also make our unique Hercules know-how available for their specific challenges. Meanwhile, we organized dozens of active bespoke events at various locations in the world for one company. These could range from an active company day, family day or team day to the organization of the Flair Games in co-creation with Sanoma. We also organize CSR projects, such as the Pink Ladies Games in Dubai to raise breast cancer awareness.
Marketing strategy
Herculean believes in the power of content marketing and sales automation to accelerate growth. Partners of all kinds aggregate and distribute content via Herculean.coop to inspire fans and enhance fan loyalty.
Distribution strategy
Now that the three regional offices have been established in Dubai, Belgium and New York, we focus on the distribution of the Herculean business via licensees in various countries.
Internationalisation strategy
Thanks to the founder’s technological background, a mature IT platform has been built since 1999 that enables us to take our know-how to partners all over the world. From content marketing, sales automation and operations to finance, the Herculean platform is unprecedented in the world of sportainment. As Color Run, Iron Man or Spartan Race have become international formats, Herculean does the same with Hercules Trophies in Dubai, Abu Dhabi, Warsaw, New York, Johannesburg, Vilnius, Madrid, Rotterdam and in quite a lot of new countries. Now that Hercules Trophy has started, Hercules Projects and the Hercules Academy are being internationalized as well.
Intellectual Property
The two founders registered the platform, the concept and the name of Hercules Trophy and granted the lifelong right of use to Herculean in exchange for royalties.
Major contracts
Hundreds of companies in Belgium and abroad are Herculean customers. These are primarily large companies (e.g. Microsoft, BNP, Google, Brussels Airport, Etihad), but over the past few years we have noticed that hundreds of small and medium-sized companies have also found their way to the Herculean solutions. From participation in Hercules Trophy and organizing tailor-made small and big projects to guidance on the shop floor via the Academy, there is something for everybody.
Main partners
We believe in the power of co-creation and collaborate with a great many partners, and we are very pleased to include them in the cooperative structure. Chambers of Commerce and B2B media companies are of profound importance, of course. Several sponsors, too, support the Hercules Trophies. In addition, we make our suppliers genuine partners that can use our platform to innovate on the B2B market. Sabine Appelmans, Gella Vandecaveye, Serge Haubourdin, Springbok Coaching and many others are partners in the Hercules Academy. We are also surrounded by partners to develop our IT platform further. Examples include FlowPilots, Microsoft and ICT4Me.