ON PURPOSE has secured a strategic equity investment from PR industry veterans Rishi Seth and Zach James, as the mid-sized communications firm looks to accelerate its next phase of growth while deepening its focus on social impact and sustainability.Seth and James bring more than three decades of combined leadership and entrepreneurial experience to the firm. Their careers span senior roles across agencies such as BCW Global, Six Degrees PR, Alphabet Consulting, and Text 100. More recently, both became strategic investors in The PRactice, a move that mirrors their latest involvement with ON PURPOSE.The investment is aimed at supporting ON PURPOSE’s long-term scale ambitions. Key priorities include shifting the business towards a more predictable, retainer-led revenue model and strengthening leadership depth beyond the first line of management. Despite the equity infusion, ON PURPOSE will continue to operate independently of the investors’ other business interests and will maintain its clear stance of working exclusively on social impact-driven mandates, including its long-standing refusal to represent polluting industries.Founder Girish Balachandran will continue to lead the firm as CEO and retain his shareholding. The partnership is positioned as a hands-on one, with Seth and James expected to work closely with Balachandran, the leadership team, and clients, contributing operational expertise and strategic guidance as the firm evolves.The move reflects a broader belief that purpose-led communications is no longer a niche discipline but increasingly central to reputation management, regulation, talent engagement, and long-term business value. The partnership also underscores a shared view that future-ready communications models must balance measurable impact, predictable growth, and storytelling suited to an environment shaped by AI, digital platforms, and rising stakeholder scrutiny.In addition to growth and scale, the investment is intended to help ON PURPOSE build stronger senior leadership capacity and sharpen its organisational structure as the firm expands its client base across sustainability, advocacy, development communications, CSR, and behaviour change.Seth and James’ involvement with ON PURPOSE follows a similar investment they made in The PRactice two years ago. Both firms will continue to operate independently, with Girish Balachandran and Nandita Lakshmanan remaining CEOs of ON PURPOSE and The PRactice respectively. While there is no merger planned, the structure allows for selective collaboration and shared learning between the two organisations.The two firms are positioned as complementary rather than overlapping. The PRactice’s strengths lie in corporate reputation, leadership communications, B2B technology, and stakeholder relations, working with Fortune 500 companies, unicorns, and global technology brands. ON PURPOSE, by contrast, works closely with multilaterals, foundations, NGOs, and organisations focused on social and environmental impact. Together, the combination is seen as enabling broader capability-building while preserving distinct identities and values.Operationally, the arrangement is expected to allow best practices from both firms to inform each other’s growth, functioning as a more flexible, incubation-led model rather than a traditional network structure. The leadership on both sides views the partnership as an enabler of stronger capabilities and more sustainable scale, without creating conflicts or diluting each firm’s core mission.
