Sydney-based workforce management software solution, Deputy, has closed a $111 million ($81m USD) Series B funding round to accelerate growth, transform the future of hourly-paid work through new, innovative products and build Australia’s finest product and engineering team. The funding is Australia’s largest Series B secured to date.
Deputy gives employees and employers a simple-to-use software to help manage their time, rostering and other critical workplace operations for hourly paid staff. The Sydney-headquartered startup has more than one million registered users, and works with businesses like Qantas, McDonalds, Aesop, Amazon, and Gelato Messina to empower their hourly paid workforce.
But that’s just the tip of the iceberg. To date, Deputy has rostered 200 million shifts, equating to over 1.2 billion hours of work and facilitated over $30 billion in payroll payments.
“At Deputy, we’re making the lives of employers easier. Taking away some of the administrative strain and giving them untold hours back to focus on what matters: running their businesses, or spending time with their families” said Deputy’s CEO and co-founder Ashik Ahmed. “We’ve had immense success up until now, but we’re only just getting started.”
“There are 2.2 billion hourly paid workers in the world today, but too many of these are still managing their jobs in archaic ways. The opportunity here is huge: we envisage a day where every single shift being worked is powered by Deputy — and this funding allows us to build the best product and engineering team in the world that helps us get there.”
Record breaking funding
Deputy’s Series B funding round was led by Silicon Valley based venture capital firm IVP, known for its investment in startup successes, Dropbox, Snap, Slack and Twitter.
Alongside IVP, the funding round also attracted investment from OpenView, who led Deputy’s $33m ($25m USD) Series A round, with Australian VC firms Square Peg Capital and EVP also participating. The deal represents the largest Series B raise in Australian history and brings Deputy’s total funding to date to more than $144 million.
On the investment, Ahmed said: “Having the backing and endorsement of IVP is a testament to the work that the entire Deputy team has put in to positively impact the future of work. They’ve backed some of the most exciting generational software businesses, and we’re delighted to be in such good company.”
“We’re delighted with the investors who have backed Deputy: they’re the perfect partners for us, and bring a considerable amount of knowledge and expertise to the table. Not only will their support enable Deputy to scale and expand into new and existing markets, but we’ll be able to invest in enhancing our product to make real, tangible efficiency improvements to the way businesses operate globally,” Ahmed said.
Eric Liaw, General Partner at IVP, who will join Deputy’s board as part of the terms of the deal said: “IVP has a long history backing some of the most forward-thinking technology companies, many of which are solving some of the world’s biggest problems, and Deputy certainly fits within that criteria.”
“The future of work is transforming dramatically. In a trend that started decades ago, businesses and workers around the world are moving towards flexible, hourly-based work. While this offers both businesses and employers greater freedom, the coordination of shifts and schedules presents an increasingly complicated set of pain points for workers and businesses. Existing solutions are antiquated; paper timeclocks, whiteboards in the break room and spreadsheets are woefully inadequate for an increasingly mobile workforce. Deputy brings an incredibly simple and effective technology solution to make work easier for both workers and their employers.”
“What impressed us the most is the quality of Deputy’s product. We spoke to many happy customers who were crying tears of joy at the benefits of Deputy. Hourly workers were similarly thrilled, they have more flexibility to work as many or as few shifts as they like, with more predictability. Business managers love the improved visibility and reliability, they now cannot imagine going back to the dark ages and operating their business without Deputy’s suite of tools. We are excited to support Ashik, Steve and team as they work towards their goal of having every shift in the world on Deputy.”
An Australian startup success
Currently Deputy has more than 200 employees across Australia, the US and the UK. But that’s all about to change.
“While building our capabilities within our global markets is a key priority for us, Australia is where we started, it’s our home and will continue to be for the years to come. We’re growing, and we want to help Australia’s STEM credentials grow with us. As part of our new funding, we’re going to build Australia’s best product and engineering team.”
With customers ranging in size, Ahmed says that this new funding round will allow Deputy to scale efficiently and effectively globally while enhancing its offerings simultaneously.
“We now have over 90,000 businesses globally from small coffee shops in Sydney’s suburbs, to Australia’s most well-travelled airline, Qantas; from Aussie franchise success stories like Gelato Messina in Australia, to behemoths like McDonalds in the US. One of the best things about Deputy is that it can be scaled from small and medium sized businesses to large enterprise accounts. There’s a huge global demand for our platform, particularly as hourly paid employees account for two-thirds of the global workforce,” Ahmed said.
The team at Deputy have built the ultimate employee management tool: simplifying scheduling, timesheets, tasks and workplace communication — helping businesses transform their operations and empower employees to work the way they want. But they’re only just getting started.
The business was founded in Sydney, Australia in 2008 by Ashik Ahmed, CEO and Steve Shelley with the aim to make work easier for businesses worldwide — as every business should have a “Deputy”, their trusted second-in-charge. Deputy’s Series A funding round last year was backed by OpenView.
