This startup created an app to help often tech-nervous charities manage their volunteers better and therefore get the most from their top resource – people.
See our guide to this year’s hottest new businesses and most exceptional founders in the complete 2026 Startups 100 index.
Founders: Ashley Staines and Kedar Kasarekar
Year founded: 2020
Website: volunteero.org
The charity sector lags desperately behind the private sector when it comes to technology. Digital rollouts continue at breakneck speed for most industries but financial pressures have meant that charities have held back.
Ashley Staines and Kedar Kasarekar saw the impact firsthand. As lifelong volunteers, frustrations with the process of volunteering almost led them to quit. According to them, onboarding could take months, day-to-day communications were poor and volunteers couldn’t contribute fully. However, they decided that with the right technology, everything could be much simpler.
They worked together to build a basic tool, which they then developed into Volunteero. Featuring for the second time in the Index, the platform manages every aspect of a charity’s relationship with its volunteers, from onboarding and training to oversight and reporting.
VC investors just wouldn’t be aligned on the mission of impact over money.
Charities can customise what they want to include and create a dynamic experience for their volunteers, including messaging, badges to recognise contributions and practical tools, like expense and report filing. This also makes it easier for charities to compile data from their volunteers, which they can then use to set their strategy.
Despite a successful pre-seed, funding has been tricky as the team quickly realised that “VC investors just wouldn’t be aligned on the mission of impact over money”. However, the firm’s exceptional UX and impressive client roster have helped it to secure investment from Antler, Octopus Ventures, some of the team behind JustGiving, as well as multiple social impact angels.
The business is now profitable and the growth rate is faster than immediately after the funding. “And we have done it ‘seed strapping’ and profitably,” they say, proudly.
The platform now has 250 clients, including top charities like the Royal Voluntary Service and Citizens Advice, as well as organisations including the RAF Museum, air ambulance charities and NHS Trusts. A large part of the job is educating charities on what tech can deliver for them and making it easier for volunteers to sign up to help them achieve that.
View the full Startups 100 Index for 2026
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