Insight leads Series E for Australia's Employment Hero
Insight Partners has led a $140 million Series E round for Australian human resources services start-up Employment Hero at a valuation of $800 million.
Existing investors OneVentures, AirTree Ventures, Salesforce Ventures, and local recruitment player Seek also participated. It comes two days after AirTree, Salesforce, and Seek confirmed their participation in a $200 million Series D for Australia’s Go1, a similar platform operator, at a valuation of $1 billion.
Australia’s workforce management niche has proven disproportionately robust in recent years, attracting significant private equity and venture capital investment. Around 10 start-ups have received significant funding, with several emerging as global players and achieving unicorn status.
Insight Partners was active in this space as recently as May when it led a $72 million round for workplace training platform SafetyCulture at a valuation of $1.7 billion. Other standouts include Culture Amp, a specialist in employee feedback and engagement that has raised $158 million, and Ascender, a payroll and training player that was sold to US strategic Ceridian for around $500 million in February.
Employment Hero has raised about $200 million in private funding to date, according to AVCJ Research. Seek led a $35 million Series D in March with support from OneVentures, AirTree, and Salesforce. That round valued the company at $250 million. Previous backers also include Australia’s AMP Capital, which invested as early as 2016.
The company said in a social media post that it has grown 113% in the past year and increased headcount by 65%. At the time of the Series D, operations encompassed about 6,000 corporate clients across Australia, New Zealand, the USK, Malaysia, and Singapore with an aggregate of more than 250,000 employees.
Core products include a free cloud-based HR software service platform with a mobile app and payable premium content. There are tools for paperless personnel filings, as well as staff engagement software, payroll automation, and analytics functions for monitoring team diversity and regulatory compliance, among other issues.
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