HR Tech News – July -2019

The month of July saw USD 328 million invested in HR technology deals across the globe. The start of Q-3 is thus better than Q-1 but not as good as the start of Q-2. Excluding the Ultimate deal of USD 11 Billion, we have USD 3 Billion invested in HR technology in these 7 months. The month of July saw the rise of Workplace Collaboration deals while Talent acquisition continued to be favorite. Read on for more details.

Workplace Collaboration

Workplace collaboration is a hot topic and interest in this space has been on the rise since Slack came along. Monday.com is the latest unicorn to emerge in this space with its latest funding of USD 150 million.  This latest round makes it one of the highest valued company in the project management and business software category. The definition of what we can or can not call HR technology is fast changing. Platforms like Monday are looking to move to the center of gravity of action and provide hooks, up to 1000, for all other apps to connect.

Microsoft Office 365 which is arguably the most used business software in the world, is taking definitive steps to continue its dominance via workplace collaboration. The latest announcement by Dynamic Signal indicates at seamless integration between the two. This is likely to enable effective and efficient communication and collaboration within MS Office 365. In our opinion, we are likely to see more such integrations between MS Office and other HR technology applications in months and years to come.

Vyopta, which provides monitoring and analytics tools for workplace collaboration raised USD 7.5 million in their Series B. This technology tool helps you optimize investments in collaboration technologies. This is an interesting niche occupied by Vyopta.  It could be a great tool in the hands of CTO or CIO to help optimize investment in collaboration platforms.

Workplace collaboration is also about communication, this is another niche that is attracting some attention now. Staffbase, a company that provides mobile-first employee communication and experience platform, raised USD 22 million in new funding. 

Talent Acquisition

As per George Larocque’s VC deal tracker, USD 1.02 Billion have been invested in Talent Acquisition space in 2019 alone. This is the 2^nd highest category of investment just behind HCM within HR tech market.

With an estimated 7.4 million unfilled jobs in the US market with 6.2 million people looking for work, the gap between the number of job openings and job seekers is increasing in the US market. This means companies are competing to keep and attract relevant talent for their business. This is a perfect ground for technology hiring and media platform like Built-in. It raised USD 22 million in series C this month. This is their biggest funding round taking the total funding to USD 30 million. This investment augurs well for localized and industry-focused solutions.

The talent acquisition space has been experiencing acquisitions within the space too. July saw two high profile acquisitions. Indeed, the world’s number one job site announced the acquisition of ClickIQ, automated job advertising platform in the UK.

In another deal, TMP Worldwide acquired Perengo. In both deals, an established tech company has acquired a newer player based on their strategic fit in the overall solution. The resultant winner is the consumers of the technology. The talent acquisition space has so much headroom to create effective and innovative solutions, the interest levels will continue to remain high.

The bespoke crowd staffing platform, HireXtra has announced the launch of pre-IPO. This is great news for India based HR technology firms as through this pre-IPO HireXtra seeks to enter NASDAQ Nordic Exchange.

Everything Else

If you wanted to see what future of work is likely to be for remote field staff, look at RealWear. They have raised USD 80 million for their AR headset and platform. And if thought this is happening in the USA alone, check their website. They have a presence in India, China, and Europe too. This is truly bringing science fiction into reality.

Performance management and workforce engagement have received very high mindshare within HR and business communities in the recent past. HR technology tools like 15five, that help solve this problem are in demand. 15Five has raised USD 30 million in Series B this month, indicating investor confidence in this subcategory.

We have an interest in Asia pacific market, as it is similar yet unique to its global counterparts. The Asia pacific market presents great opportunities for innovation and growth within the HR tech solution space. So, we are particularly happy to see Employment Hero from Australia raise AUD 22 million in Series C funding this month.

Conclusion

The month of July continues the momentum of investment and consolidation within the HR technology space globally. We see older and newer categories coming together to reshape the solutions on offer. The emergence of workplace collaboration is a great story and we believe there is a lot that can be done here. We expect this space to continue to grow, consolidate and innovate in coming months.