China HR software start-up GaiaWorks gets $76m Series D

Tencent Holdings, EDBI, and Index Capital also came in as new investors, while existing backer Matrix Partners China re-upped.

Founded in 2009, Suzhou-based GaiaWorks specializes in cloud-based workforce management solutions that help employers forecast workforce demands, manage schedule shifts, record employees' attendance records, and review job performance using big data analytic tools. It mainly provides services via a mobile app.

Customers are mostly medium to large-size manufacturing, retail, and services businesses. The company claims to have served more than 1,500 corporate clients and over five million frontline workers in 24 countries globally. They include China Resources Group, BOE, Estee Lauder, Chow Tai Fook, APM, GAP, Volkswagen, Sodexo, China Fortune Land Development, Pinjun Express, and PetroChina.

Traditionally, Chinese companies have relied on internally developed systems for HR management rather than advanced, technology-driven offerings from third parties. However, with labor costs rising, the arrival of younger, more tech-savvy employees, and expansion into overseas markets with different work cultures, companies are turning to centralized and standardized systems developed by the likes of GaiaWorks. Other players in the space include Anxinji, which raised a Series B round led by Ant Financial in 2018.

Eric Xu, a managing partner at GGV, said that GaiaWorks is a long-time leader in workforce management in China. He believes that top-level clients drive workforce management with very rigid but complex customer needs, and GaiaWorks' products, technology, and service gain a strong reputation among these clients.

"China is the largest workforce market globally, and workforce management in China is complex and dynamic," said Simpson Zhang, co-founder and CEO of GaiaWorks. "We have focused on workforce management for more than a decade, and our customer retention rate is still over 99%. We will invest more in technology to connect enterprises, employees, and partners within our flexible workforce management platform as well as go global to serve more frontline workers."

The company raised RMB300 million in a Series C round of funding led by Tiger Global Management in 2019, which also featured Warburg Pincus and Matrix Partners China. Matrix first backed GaiaWorks in 2016 and was then joined by Genesis Capital in a RMB50 million Series A round a year later. In 2017, Matrix, Warburg Pincus and Genesis contributed a further RMB300 million.

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• Topics
• Greater China
• Expansion
• Technology
• China
• enterprise software
• Matrix Partners
• Tencent
• GGV Capital