See other companies on Otta

Zero Gravity

Powering students from low-opportunity areas to make their ambitions real

21-100 employees
  • B2C
  • B2B
  • Enterprise
  • Education
  • Recruitment
Zero Gravity HQ, 55 Bartholomew Close, London, EC1A 7ES

Company mission

Zero Gravity is on a mission to level the playing field.

Some candidates hear
back within 2 weeks

45% female employees

161% employee growth in 12 months

Otta's take

Sam Franklin headshot

Sam Franklin

CEO of Otta

Zero Gravity is a free online platform which connects state school students with university mentors to win offers at Oxbridge and Russell Group universities. Launched in 2020, Zero Gravity has already empowered 8000+ students from across the UK to secure places at top universities through mentoring, masterclasses, internships, scholarships and many other educational resources.

Traditional players in the social mobility space communicate primarily to their corporate and high net worth donors. They say too little to the young people whose lives they’re affecting. Zero Gravity takes a different approach by speaking directly to those young people. It exists as an online platform that bypasses schools and goes straight to the world of social media, where its Gen Z audience spends its time.

Zero Gravity is so popular with the undergraduate community that 10% of Oxbridge students are mentoring on the platform. What’s more, Zero Gravity has spent almost nothing on advertising to achieve its 15,000 strong membership. It has achieved this success by crafting a message that young people care about, delivering it in a way that inspires them. And it works - recent evaluation by UCAS has suggested that Zero Gravity almost doubles the chances of receiving an Oxbridge offer for low-income students.

Benefits

  • 🚀 | Incredible Work - Be part of a mission-driven business that is transforming the lives of our users and disrupting the status quo.
  • 🤑 | Performance bonus - We reward top performance via our very own 'Zero Gravity Bonus Scheme'.
  • 📈 | Share options - You can become a Zero Gravity shareholder via our 'Zero Gravity For All' option scheme.
  • 🏢 | Central London office - You'll work out of our beautiful Zero Gravity HQ in St Pauls, with flexible working options.
  • 👩‍💻 | Brand New MacBook - We'll equip you with the latest Apple hardware so you have the best tech to do your work.
  • 💳 | Zero Gravity Card - We’ll give you a Zero Gravity Card loaded with £500pa to spend on learning and development.
  • 💃 | Fortnightly socials - Every fortnight we take our team out for dinner/drinks, followed by a big celebration at the end of every quarter.
  • 🎄 | End of year time off - Get 3 days off over the festive period in addition to your entitled 25 days of annual leave.
  • 🌎 | Work from anywhere weeks - You're entitled to up to 4 work from anywhere weeks a year.

Company values

  • 🕺| Stand up straight - We say what we think and mean what we say. We’re straight talkers who hold ourselves and others to a high standard, owning our mistakes and always striving for improvement
  • 💪 | Run towards danger - We push ourselves to the limit and refuse to stand still. We embrace imposter syndrome by taking risks, failing fast, and venturing into the unknown. Because playing it safe ≠ progress
  • 🪄 | Change it up - Innovation comes from challenging convention. So we say no to the status quo and constantly seek to disrupt our own thinking. Because the best ideas are often found in the strangest of places
  • 💥 | Make it happen - We focus on creating incredible results rather than obsessing over process. There’s an inherent drive in our work: a bias toward taking action, moving fast, and delivering what matters

Funding (2 rounds)

Dec 2021

$4.4m

SEED

Mar 2020

$0.6m

ANGEL

$5m

Total funding

Founders

Award-winning social entrepreneur who has scaled Zero Gravity from his student bedroom into one of the UK's leading tech-for-good startups. Featured in the Forbes 30 Under 30 list.

Diversity & Inclusion at Zero Gravity

Joe Seddon headshot

Joe Seddon (Founder & CEO)

  • Zero Gravity exists to superpower diverse talent into top universities and careers. This mission is at the core of everything we do, and we only hire staff who live and breathe our mission.
  • We believe in real diversity rather than token gestures. We’ve built our Zero Gravity culture around empowering top talent from all backgrounds, making Zero Gravity the ultimate meritocracy.
  • We’ve developed a contextual algorithm which enables our platform to talent spot high potential talent from low-income backgrounds. We use these same techniques in our own hiring process to make sure we’re hiring from the widest possible talent pool.
  • I originally started Zero Gravity from my hometown bedroom in West Yorkshire with the last £200 of my student loan. I come from a single-parent background, went to a state school, and hired my first employee at the age of 22. My own journey has instilled in me a belief that age and background should never be a barrier to advancement!

Endorsements

All

Inspiring mission (6)

Team energy (5)

Meaningful work (3)

Opportunities to learn (2)

Growing fast (2)

Challenging work (1)

Autonomy (1)

Nice people (1)

Intelligent people (1)

Hard working team (1)

Zero Gravity 1Zero Gravity 2Zero Gravity 3Zero Gravity 4Zero Gravity 5Zero Gravity 6Zero Gravity 7Zero Gravity 8Zero Gravity 9Zero Gravity 10