Employment Hero secures $263 million raise in 2023’s biggest deal

Australian HR and payroll giant Employment Hero has secured a fresh $263 million capital raise, a figure that prepares the venture for deeper international expansion and defiant of the downswing in blockbuster funding activity.

The Series F round was led by Californian giant Technology Crossover Ventures (TCV), which has previously backed global titans like Airbnb and Spotify.

In a statement released Thursday, Employment Hero CEO and co-founder Ben Thompson said investment from TCV was a vote of confidence in his firm’s ambitious plans.

“While we were not actively seeking funding, our growth story has meant that we have received significant inbound investor interest – this 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,” he said.

The investment arrives just months after Employment Hero released Swag, an app combining traditional rostering, payslip, and leave request functions with advanced recruitment tools.

Now, the company’s vision is for Swag, and its new artificial intelligence-powered talent acquisition system SmartMatch, to lead a new era of Employment Hero’s expansion internationally.

“Within 12 months, Employment Hero will transcend the traditional confines of HR and Payroll,” Thompson said.

“We will open doors to a world where talent flows like water through a pipe, right to your doorstep.

“That’s the future we’re building. Businesses can seamlessly plug into our unparalleled reservoir of talent, with automatic compliance and compensation mechanisms.”

The company states the new raise puts Employment Hero’s valuation in the $2 billion ballpark, but the untapped global market for plug-in HR and payroll solutions means Thompson is now aiming even higher.

“Our sights are set on becoming a $50 billion plus business, so our financial aspirations match the scale of our global vision,” he said.

The deal has gatecrashed a relatively subdued year for pubic funding announcements, and is likely to stand as one of the biggest deals involving an Australian company in 2023.

In broad terms, investor sentiment has fallen from its pandemic-era highs as global interest rates crept upwards, punishing cash-burning ventures and funnelling investors to surer bets in the market.

Fears of a recession are still live in the US, yet there are furtive signs that interest rates have peaked, and a growing sentiment among economists suggests clearer skies are ahead for the US economy.

At home, new analysis also suggests some optimism for economic conditions in 2024.