Sydney-headquartered human resources (HR) tech company Employment Hero has acquired Canadian employment platform Humi for C$100 million ($112 million) in a major global expansion that has come a little over a year since securing the backing of Californian venture capital firm TCV.
Employment Hero, which achieved double-unicorn status at the end of 2023 with a valuation of more than $2 billion after the $263 million in Series F capital raise led by TCV, describes the acquisition as a “game-changing deal”.
“This acquisition marks a significant step in our global expansion and reinforces our commitment to making employment easier and more valuable for businesses and employees worldwide,” says the company in a post on LinkeIn.
“With Humi’s unparalleled expertise in Canada’s employment landscape and our Employment Operating System (eOS) innovation, we’re uniting global and local strengths to deliver a comprehensive, all-in-one solution tailored for Canadian SMEs.
“Together, we’ll empower thousands of businesses across Canada with simplified HR, payroll, and benefits management - helping SMEs invest in their people, processes, and growth.”
Employment Hero was co-founded in 2014 by Ben Thompson, who is the company’s CEO, and Dave Tong, who is chief technology officer. The group currently serves more than two million employees and 300,000 small to medium business in Australia, New Zealand, the UK and the Asia-Pacific region.
“Canada has been in our expansion plans since our Series A and it’s a real privilege to be partnering with (Humi co-founder and CEO) Kevin Kilman and the entire team at Humi to make that a reality,” says Thompson.
Thompson describes Kilman as a “passionate founder”
“Humi’s success to date is testament to his commitment to Canadian businesses. The Humi team has a deep knowledge of Canadian employment and an impressive track record of supporting businesses in Canada.”
Thompson adds that Humi will remain Canadian-operated with the team well placed to serve “the unique needs of local businesses”.
The Toronto-based Humi, which was founded in 2016, is said to be Canada's leading employment platform supporting almost 30,000 employers and 150,000 employees. It counts recent Employment Hero investor TCV among its backers.
“From my cat-filled living room nine years ago, to becoming a meaningful platform today that makes a difference in the lives of so many Canadians, I’m proud to share that over 150,000 Canadians are supported by our platform, and we’ve helped pay over C$7 billion ($7.8 billion) in wages,” says Kilman in a LinkedIn post.
“And this is just the start. The partnership with Employment Hero is going to be a massive catalyst for us to help more Canadian businesses.”
Kilman says that Humi will “remain proudly Canadian-operated” following the acquisition.
“Our focus on the unique needs of Canadian businesses won’t change,” he says. “This is a crucial part of what makes Humi, well, Humi."
Kilman sees Employment Hero as "the perfect partner to support Humi’s growth in Canada".
"Their investment in Humi is a commitment to our customers. The backing will provide us with the resources to accelerate our growth and broaden our impact, but we will continue to operate from our home base in Canada, with a laser focus on serving Canadian small and medium-sized businesses.”
Employment Hero is backed by early investors Insight Partners, AirTree, Seek and OneVentures, as well as TCV which has an extensive investment portfolio that includes Airbnb, eHarmony, GoDaddy and Groupon, as well as Humi.
When TCV made its investment in Employment Hero at the end of 2023, the venture capital group’s general partner Muz Ashraf described the company’s HRIS (human resources information system) platform as the best-in-class and at the time hinted at plans to accelerate the company’s growth trajectory through global expansion.
Help us deliver quality journalism to you.
As a free and independent news site providing daily updates
during a period of unprecedented challenges for businesses everywhere
we call on your support