Lightning Reach

Lightning Reach is a UK platform that helps people in financial hardship find and apply for the support they are entitled to. Around £24bn in benefits, grants and other assistance goes unclaimed in the UK each year, spread across councils, charities, utilities, housing providers and trusts, each with its own eligibility rules and largely manual application processes. More than 20 million people in the country live in financially vulnerable circumstances.

Individuals complete a single profile and are matched against schemes from across that landscape, applying once rather than repeatedly. On the other side, Lightning Reach gives partner organisations the infrastructure to verify need, process applications and deliver payments, using tools including open banking to cut the administrative work of collecting and reviewing bank statements. The company works with more than 100 organisations across the UK, among them major utility providers, local authorities, charities, housing associations and banks.

Founded during the Covid-19 pandemic by Ren Yi Hooi and launched in December 2021, the platform has reached over 300,000 people and facilitated more than £25m in financial assistance. It raised £1m in 2023 led by the Joseph Rowntree Foundation, alongside Big Issue Invest's Growth Impact Fund, Barrow Cadbury Trust and Techstars, from a backer base of close to 30 investors. Annual recurring revenue quadrupled over the past year while the company remained cash positive. In July 2026 it was acquired by European Technology Group, a govtech group that will keep it operating independently under chief executive Rhiannon Sheridan, targeting one million people reached by 2028.