Sydney founded cloud-based HR, payroll and benefits platform Employment Hero announced it has secured AUD $8 million in Series B funding. The funding round was co-led by SEEK and OneVentures with participation from AirTree Ventures and AMP.
The Series B funding adds to its $4.5 million Series A that was led by OneVentures with co-investment by AirTree Ventures and AMP New Ventures in 2016.
Founded in 2013 Employment Hero manages the entire employment life-cycle for small-to medium sized businesses. It combines HR software, scheduling and payroll tools, performance management, employee benefits and financial services into a user-friendly Employment Management Platform.
Ben Thompson, founder and CEO for Employment Hero, said: “Employment Hero is taking the hard work out of people management and improving employee engagement for over 3,000 businesses across Australia. By automating many of the manual processes associated with employment, they are freed up to focus on business growth and fostering their people.”
He added: “By working closely with Seek, we want to be able to make it easier to move from recruiting to onboarding. We’re excited for a future where transitioning into new employment is a seamless and enjoyable experience and where the paperwork and administration for recruiters, HR business partners, employers and employees is drastically reduced.”
What does this funding mean for Employment Hero?
The latest round of funding will be used to roll out a string of new products and solutions that bring more value to the platform.
Employment Hero has grown revenue and users on the platform by 10 per cent month on month since 2015. The platform integrates with major accounting and payroll platforms including Xero, MYOB, Intuit QuickBooksOnline and Keypay. Employee benefit partners offered through Employment Hero include ANZ, AON, Jobs Australia and AMP. Employment Hero currently support around 3,000 businesses and manage over 150,000 employee files.
Ronnie Fink, Corporate Development Director for SEEK, said: “Employment Hero is helping businesses succeed by removing major pain points that exist in almost every small to medium Australian business. We are pleased to support a business that is so well aligned to SEEK’s Purpose, which is helping more people live fulfilling and productive working lives and helping organisations succeed. We are excited to be part of the growth prospects that lie ahead for Employment Hero,” Mr Fink continued.
On speaking about the support from SEEK, a global leader in online employment marketplaces, Mr Thompson said that it reinforced the value of the opportunity in front of them to make even more businesses productive, which is well aligned to SEEK’s purpose.
“Given SEEK’s deep understanding of the employment landscape and the challenges faced by employees and hirers it is encouraging to have them back Employment Hero. It gives us even more confidence in the opportunity that exists for our business, and the value we can offer small to medium businesses and employees,” Mr Thompson went on to say.
Dr Michelle Deaker, Managing Partner for OneVentures, said: “Employment Hero is demonstrating significant growth. Ben Thompson and the team are executing well on the business plan to capture what is a very large opportunity. SEEK is well regarded for their positive impact on their investments and we look forward to the opportunity afforded by the partnership.”
