ReFresh raises $2.5M to make workplace psychosocial risk visible
What's the deal? ReFreshDealroom has a profile for this one. Try Dealroom →, a workplace psychosocial safety platform, has raised $2.5 million in Seed funding. Black Nova Venture Capital led the round, with follow-on investment from AntlerDealroom has a profile for this one. Try Dealroom → and Archangel VenturesDealroom has a profile for this one. Try Dealroom →. The startup has now raised more than $4 million.
Why now? The round closed a fortnight before the shutdown of People at Work, the free government survey used by about 5,000 organisations and 160,000 workers to assess psychosocial risk since 2020. Safe Work Australia and state regulators said it no longer reflects current requirements.
What's the endgame? Every employer must identify and address psychosocial hazards at work. ReFresh gives organisations a single system to identify hazards, assess and manage the risk, and keep inspection-ready evidence.
The problem it targets: "Most employers have a survey running somewhere, a policy document somewhere else, an incident spreadsheet a manager keeps privately, and no way to show a regulator that any of it connects," chief executive officer Harrison Kennedy said.
Kennedy and Taylor Laing founded ReFresh in 2025, building it from opposite sides of the Pacific after a mutual contact introduced them. They had employees, a pre-Seed round and onboarded customers before meeting in person. Clients span financial services, government, and ASX-listed tech companies.
The mission is personal for Kennedy. A competitive swimmer and international model as a teenager, he developed anxiety and at 19 built a mental health media platform, Really Mental, backed by Amazon. "Really Mental taught me that awareness is not the same thing as change," he said. "The design of the work is what does the damage."
The stakes: Mental health conditions have become the costliest category of workers compensation claims nationally, at four times the average claim. Kennedy said regulators are taking a closer look at how workplaces meet their responsibilities.
The signal: Kennedy frames psychosocial safety as following the path of physical safety infrastructure. "Physical safety took three decades to get its infrastructure," he said. "Psychosocial is the same shift compressed into a decade, and it is happening now."
Read more: startupdaily.net
Image credit: Generated with Gemini
