Ben Towers

Ben Towers co-founded Happl, a London-based employee benefits software company, and is its chief executive. The company behind it was incorporated in January 2020 as Tahora Ltd and renamed Happl Ltd in March 2024; Happl dates the start of the business to 2022. Towers, who holds an MBE, says the idea was that benefits should be “easy to understand, easy to manage and easy to implement”.

One system for benefits in every country

Happl describes its product as a global benefits operating system for multinational employers. It pairs a configurable rules engine with integrations into HR information systems (HRIS) and payroll, so that benefit rules, flexible allowances and reimbursements run in one place instead of market by market. Happl says it operates in more than 160 countries, and its customers include Moelis, Kainos and Hootsuite. It integrates with more than 100 business tools, including Workday and Xero, and is approved on the UK Government Benefits Framework, according to Startups.co.uk. In the UK it also arranges insurance as an appointed representative of a firm authorized by the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA).

“Benefits are one of the messiest line items in any global employer’s budget,” Towers wrote when announcing the company’s Series A. Every country brings its own carriers, rules and paperwork, and he argues that most employers still hold it together with spreadsheets, brokers and manual work.

An $11m Series A

In May 2026 Happl raised an $11m (£8.1m) Series A led by Portage Ventures, with participation from F Capital and continued support from Y Combinator, 6 Degrees Capital, Haatch and Ventures Together. Towers said the money would go into product development and international expansion. The company has offices in London and New York.

Startups.co.uk, which placed Happl in its Startups 100 for 2026, reported a 98% customer retention rate and support for more than 70 languages. An earlier $5m round was led by 6 Degrees Capital and Ascension.

Why it matters to UK buyers

For UK companies that employ people abroad, benefits become a compliance and cost problem that grows with every new country. Happl gives HR and finance teams one system tied to the HR and payroll software they already run, in place of a broker and a spreadsheet per market. Its integrations also matter to the HR and payroll partners that implement those systems, because benefits data no longer has to be keyed in twice.

Towers has built a London company that sells benefits infrastructure to multinational employers on both sides of the Atlantic. The Series A gives him the capital to compete for their global contracts against the brokers and point products he set out to replace.