Two university of York alumni have launched a new wellbeing platform which seeks to encourage employers to support the physical wellbeing of their employees.

Building on the success of their previous platform, which was used by over 20,000 people, Toby Cannon and Michael McCreadie have launched Myles Wellbeing, which seeks to incentivise positive behavioural change for desk-based workers.

Mr Cannon, Founder and CEO of Myles Wellbeing, said: “We’re super excited to launch Myles Wellbeing to support employees in creating sustainable wellbeing habits”.

“We’re the first generation that need to build physical activity into our day to day lives.”

Toby Cannon (pictured) is CEO of the newly launched Myles Wellbeing.

The founders note that the Myles Wellbeing platform seeks to move past more traditional office step counting challenges, and encourage employees to develop sustainable habits.

The platform is able to connect with over 30 smartwatches and fitness apps, enabling users to compete with colleagues and earn rewards for activities and sports.

It will then seek to incentivise behavioural change by looking at participants' improvement month on month, and enabling users to earn points on different activities, which can be seen on a leaderboard and exchanged for a range of rewards.

Myles Wellbeing uses an algorithm based on ‘metabolic equivalent tasks’ to compare different physical activities such as running, yoga, tennis or walking.

Highlighting the importance of employee physical wellbeing in the workplace, Co-founder, Michael McCreadie said: “It isn't just nice to have, it's a necessity if you want to grow a sustainable business.”

The original Myles app was launched during the pandemic in the summer of 2020 to provide motivation for people to stick to their fitness goals.

It was used across 120 countries, and users included employees at Dell, NHS Supply Chain and Capital One.

Myles Wellbeing now has five employees, and is looking to make further hires over the coming months.

Prior to launching Myles Wellbeing, Toby Cannon studied Computer Science at the University of York, before going on to spend two and a half years working as a software engineer.

Michael McCreadie studied Business Management at the University of York, and has previous experience working on other startups.

The company notes that it has already had significant interest from a range of organisations.

York graduates launch new employee physical wellbeing platform