EmploymentHero, one of the world’s largest job-search portals, has announced a $167 million (A$263 million) Series F funding round, becoming the nine-year-old firm Australia’s newest unicorn. The global growth fund TCV (Technology Crossover Ventures) led the funding round, an investor in Airbnb, ByteDace, Electronic Arts, Expedia, GoDaddy, LinkedIn, Netflix, and Meta. This round was also backed by existing investors such as Insight Partners, AirTree, Seek, and OneVentures, which brought the company’s valuation close to about $1.2 billion (A$2.13 billion).
Headquartered in Sydney, the startup, which operates in Singapore and Malaysia, plans to deploy fresh capital to expand into significant international markets.
Thompson and Dave Tong co-founded EmploymentHero in 2014 to provide HR software that incorporates operations such as payroll, employee benefits and retirement benefits, employment contracts, and accounting into one platform. Globally, the platform supports over 300,000 SMEs and over two million employees. For employees, the firm super-app, ‘Swag’, is a real-time control center, empowering them to manage their work and financial lives efficiently and intelligently. The app provides a range of benefits that help save members thousands of dollars each year, a highly relevant solution given the global inflation and cost-of-living squeeze.
Speaking on the fundraising, the Founder & CEO of EmployementHero, Ben Thompson, said:
While we were not actively seeking funding, our growth story has meant that we have received significant inbound investors’ interest has given us incredible confidence in our vision, and allowed us to opportunistically boost our balance sheet, even at a time when the funding environment has been tight. TCV is a leading technology investor with an enviable track record backing many of the world’s most ubiquitous digital platforms like Airbnb and Spotify. We are excited to welcome them aboard as we do the same for employment.
The company earlier said about 97 percent of employers in Australia have less than 200 employees and essentially need access to tools to make the people management process easy or more meaningful benefits to their staff.
Muz Ashraf, Partner, TCV, added:
We are thrilled to support EmployementHero on the journey to make employment work better for employers and employees globally. We have been fortunate to know Ben Dave and the broader EmploymentHero team for several years. We have been deeply impressed by their ingenuity, grit, and velocity in solving one of the fundamental pain points facing small to medium-sized businesses.
Along with the investment announcement, EmployementHero also unveiled the launch of its Hero Foundation, which aims to support employment for one million people from underserved communities over the next decade. The company, which has previously raised capital from investors such as US private equity firm Insight Partners, hopes to help businesses pay their employees in real-time, reducing pressure on consumer credit.
