Capital's HR Purpose doubling up on growth

An Edinburgh-based venture which provides 'HR as a service' to high-growth companies is flagging further growth after doubling revenues over the last 12 months.

Left to right: Wendy Davidson, Lisa Thomson and Sara Ferreira of Edinburgh-based Purpose HR. Picture: Stewart Attwood

Purpose HR, which has also doubled its client list, said its growth would be boosted by last week’s announcement that it was one of 20 businesses selected for the inaugural Scottish Government-funded Unlocking Ambition challenge.

The £4 million fund and support programme was launched to find Scotland’s next big business success story following in the footsteps of the likes of Brewdog and Skyscanner.

With a client base that already includes some of Scotland’s best known tech start-ups and scale-ups, including Smarter Grid Solutions and CodeBase-headquartered e-learning scale-up Administrate, Purpose HR has added a number of clients in recent months.

These include medical technology firms Fios Genomics and Blackford Analysis and financial technology (fintech) outfit Modulr Finance, a start-up from London which is growing its Edinburgh operations.

Purpose HR – founded by Lisa Thomson – has continued to grow its team with the addition of Sara Ferreira who is said to bring “extensive experience” of working alongside high-growth businesses.

Thomson began her HR career with Edinburgh-based audio chip designer Wolfson Microelectronics prior to its sale to Cirrus Logic. She founded Purpose in 2014 following a Saltire Fellowship that saw her study entrepreneurship at Babson College in Boston.

Chief executive and founding director Thomson said: “Even closer collaboration with our clients and an industry know-how gained from being on the coal face with start-ups and scale-ups across a number of sectors has contributed to our recent successes and the need to bring highly rated operators like Sara into the business.

“Scotland has such a vibrant high-growth scene and we feel privileged to be an increasingly important part of the ecosystem.

“Being chosen for Unlocking Ambition was a big coup for the team and, in practical terms, we’re excited that this will allow us to develop an HR technology tool more quickly than we had planned.”

Earlier this year, Thomson was appointed Ambassador for Women’s Enterprise Scotland, set up to champion female-owned businesses. Purpose HR is about to launch a “pioneering” survey with scale-up Administrate aimed at providing advice and insights for Purpose clients that are looking to diversify their workforces.