A tiger-ffic year for HRTech- USD2.09 Billion invested in January 2022

2022 is off to a roaring start, and proving to be a tiger-ffic year already with $2.09 B pumped into HR Tech deals in the first month alone. The Chinese Year of the Tiger could just be another bumper year for the HR Tech space.

Key Highlights of Jan 2022:

• Around 40 deals tracked accruing to an investment of around US $2.09B. 
• Jan 2022 witnessed the highest ever number of deals when compared to the same period in previous years - 25 in Jan 2021 & 9 in Jan 2020. 
• With several notable high value deals, the average funding round of Jan 2022 was at an impressive $53.8 M, a 62.5% increase as compared to Jan 2021 ($33.1M)
• Top categories of Jan 2022 based on deal size (See fig.  1.1)

• Talent Acquisition (Overall funding: $731.4 M)

• Key deals: Globalization Partners (Talent Acquisition>>Global Employment Platforms, $200M)

• Talent Operations (Overall funding: $580.5M)

• Key deals: Payfit (Payroll, $287M), Travel Perk (Travel & expense management, $110M), Envoy (Visitor management, $110M) 

• Talent Engagement (Overall funding: $529M)

• Key deals: Lyra (Mental Wellness, $175M); Lattice (Performance Management, $175M) 
• Maximum number of deals: Talent Acquisition segment
• Highest average deal size category: Talent Operations at $96.7M (see fig. 1.2)

Notable deals of Jan 2022

Talent Acquisition: 

• Global Employment Platform Globalization Partners received a $200 M investment by Vista Credit Partners to expand its share in the $176 billion global remote employment market. The latest investment has taken the company to a Quadricon status with a valuation of $4.6 Billion. Globalization Partners is a pioneer in this space offering the most comprehensive and compliant solutions by combining best-in-class technology with AI, along with a global team of HR, legal and customer service experts who understand local customs, regulatory and legal requirements in the various geographies it serves.
  
  

• X0PA AI, a leader in AI-powered objective hiring solutions, announced $4.2 million USD in Series A funding. As D&I becomes a key boardroom priority where organizations are looking to increase diversity in their workplaces and reduce bias, while lowering the time and cost to hire the best talent, X0PA’s intelligent hiring solutions aim to maximize objectivity in talent selection and leverage automation to empower candidates and employers to get the most equitable and desirable hiring outcomes.
  
  

• Other notable deals in this segment include Handshake (Job Board for fresh graduates) with a $200M series F funding round and Seekout (Talent Intelligence platform) with a $115M series C led by Tiger Global.

HRMS

• Asia HRTech platform Darwinbox became a unicorn with TCV led $72 M Series D funding. A stellar growth story where the cloud-based HRMS provider, Darwinbox has more than tripled its valuation to reach the unicorn status and also achieved  the path-breaking milestone for its debut in the Gartner Magic Quadrant late last year, making it the youngest and the only vendor of Asian origin. 

Talent Engagement: 

• Lyra Health, the leading Mental wellness solution provider announced a $235M Series F financing round led by Dragoneer and was joined by new investor Salesforce Ventures along with existing investor Coatue. With the new funding, Lyra will accelerate its delivery of comprehensive, evidence-based, culturally responsive mental health care benefits for employees and their families around the world. Lyra also announced the acquisition of ICAS World, an employee assistance program provider with operations in 155+ countries.

• Lattice, the leading people management platform, announced a new valuation of $3 billion after closing a $175 million round of funding from Thrive Capital, Elad Gil, Tiger Global, and Dragoneer. Lattice, who entered into the unicorn club after its Series E round in March 2021, raised the latest round to continue to fuel the company’s rapid growth across industries and geographies, and advance its product offerings.

Talent Operations

• Workforce management solution start-up, StaffAny raised US$3.4 million in its Series A funding round that was led by GGV Capital. StaffAny will use this new investment to expand regionally and develop new features for its workforce management solution. StaffAny’s Workforce management solution helps empower SMEs to manage their hourly workforce by optimising their operational scheduling, time tracking and HR end-of-month timesheet consolidation, enabling businesses to improve their performance and efficiency, while cutting operating costs. 

Total Rewards

In a notable deal in this category, India-based Earned Aage Access(EWA) start-up Refyne, which offers a platform to help employees draw their salaries on demand, raised $82 million in new funding led by New York-based investment firm Tiger Global. EWA, also known as on-demand pay, enables employees to access a portion of their accumulated wages, ahead of their payday, with the balance being paid on the regular salary day. With this round, the company valuation has jumped 6.5X from its $16 M Series A funding in July last year.

2021 was an extraordinary year for HRTech. Will 2022 be another bumper year? We will be tracking the market closely on how the year unfolds. For top deals and more insights on 2021 HRTech investments, read the blog here.

APPENDIX

Fig.  1.1 - Category wise funding