Led · Series B · Jan 2024

Sonder is a workplace wellness technology start-up. The company operates in the workplace wellness sector and is backed by venture investors. It has attracted follow-on funding, most recently banking $16 million in a Series B extension. That extension was led by SEEK Growth Fund alongside existing investors including Blackbird, Saniel Ventures and angel investor Scott Bailey. The round was reported to have come at a big valuation uplift. Scott Bailey was the company’s first angel investor in 2017. Sonder builds a workplace wellbeing platform that integrates safety, medical and mental‑health tools for organisations. The company says it will use new capital to invest in product improvements across those safety, medical and mental‑health areas. Sonder plans to grow its client base among medium and large enterprises in Australia and New Zealand and pursue opportunities within small‑ and medium‑sized businesses. Management also intends to use the funds to support expansion into international markets. The company positions its platform as a way to simplify the healthcare landscape and help organisations support employees' safety and wellbeing. Sonder's co‑founder and CEO Craig Cowdrey framed the raise as a milestone toward unlocking the wellbeing model for millions of people.

Participated · Series F · Oct 2023

Employment Hero provides an integrated HR and payroll platform with modules for recruitment, onboarding, payroll, time and attendance, and people management. The company sells end-to-end employee lifecycle tools and recently developed an AI-driven recruitment solution called SmartMatch. Employment Hero reports more than 200,000 business customers and has launched the Hero Foundation aiming to help employ 1 million people from underprivileged communities over the next decade. Founded in 2014, the company is focused on expanding its global footprint and accelerating product rollouts. The new capital is intended to fund global expansion and hasten the worldwide rollout of SmartMatch. Employment Hero provides a full-suite human-resources platform that includes payroll, benefits and other HR management tools. Its platform is used by more than 80,000 SMEs representing roughly 750,000 employees, and the company employs over 500 full-time staff. The company announced an A$181M financing that values it at A$1.25B, bringing its total reported capital raised to A$220M. In July 2021 Employment Hero announced a A$140M Series E led by Insight Partners at an A$800M valuation. As part of its growth strategy, Employment Hero acquired workforce-management and payroll provider KeyPay, which will remain an independent brand and receive investment to expand its team. KeyPay’s presence across Australia, New Zealand, Singapore, Malaysia and the U.K. is expected to support Employment Hero’s expansion in those markets. Employment Hero is an Australian all-in-one HR, payroll and benefits platform that automates employment compliance and simplifies remote and distributed workforce management for SMEs. Founded in 2014 by Ben Thompson and Dave Tong, the company offers localized people, payroll, and benefits solutions in markets including the UK, New Zealand, Malaysia, and Singapore. It serves more than 6,000 businesses and manages over 250,000 employees, and grew headcount to 325 full-time employees after a 65% increase in FY2020-2021. The company recently raised a £75 million Series E and is now valued at £430 million, bringing total capital raised to £114 million. Employment Hero plans to use the funding to double its UK sales force, accelerate expansion into Western Europe and other international markets, bolster engineering capabilities, and enhance its platform. The company launched in the UK in late 2020 and reports it has exceeded growth targets there. Employment Hero is a Sydney-based human resources platform that combines HR, payroll and benefits features for SMBs. The company serves about 6,000 SMEs covering more than 250,000 employees and doubled its full-time headcount to 200 last year. Its product includes localized versions with pre-built employment contracts and policies that comply with local laws, and it launched Global Teams, a PEO service integrated into the main platform to recruit remote employees and automate regional compliance. During the pandemic roughly 75% of customers upgraded subscriptions to include remote-work management, compliance and employee-wellness tools; the company also added engagement and productivity features and ran COVID-specific resources and webinars. Employment Hero says COVID-19 accelerated adoption of employment management software and the Series D proceeds will support expansion across New Zealand, the U.K., Malaysia, Singapore and new Southeast Asian markets including Thailand, Vietnam, Indonesia and the Philippines. The round values the company at more than A$250M (about $193.4M USD). Employment Hero offers an all-in-one benefits and payroll platform that connects employers and employees to a network of more than 50 partners providing discounts and financial products. The company was founded in 2013 by Ben Thompson (CEO) and Dave Tong (CTO) and is based in Sydney. More than 3,000 businesses use the platform, and the startup reports growing revenue and users by 10% month on month since 2015. Employment Hero has raised $12.5 million to date and recently closed an $8 million Series B. The new funding will be used to roll out new products and features on the platform. Bringing Seek on as an investor is intended to help the company better connect recruiting to onboarding.

Participated · Equity · Jun 2022

Go1 aggregates and curates content from dozens of providers (including Blinkist, Thrive, Skillsoft, Pluralsight and Harvard Business Publishing) into a single platform customers can license rather than contracting with each provider. Its customers range from companies like TikTok to the Singaporean government, and the company says revenues, customers and learners all doubled in the last year. Go1 now reports about 5 million learners using its platform. Growth has been largely organic to date, though the company has started pursuing inorganic expansion—acquiring French‑Swiss B2B edtech startup Coorpacademy in April to deepen reach in francophone markets. Management plans to use new funding to pursue further M&A, explore expanding beyond employer‑sourced learners into consumer relationships, and invest in technology such as VR-based learning and livestreaming. Go1 maintains its own branding across the experience rather than offering a fully white‑label product. Go1 provides a curated online learning platform for enterprises, aggregating some 150,000 pieces of content from roughly 1,000 publishers into configurable "playlists". The product includes analytics and AI-driven personalization to measure engagement and tailor learning. The company says it serves about 3.5 million users and more than 1,600 enterprises, with active users spending about two to six hours per month and user growth of over 300% in the last year. Go1 partners with major content providers (Pearson, EdX, Coursera, Skillsoft, Blinkist, Harvard Business Review) and integrates with corporate systems such as SAP, Workday, Salesforce and Microsoft Teams. It also aims to expand features around credential portability so users can carry certifications between jobs. The company is expanding its suite of learning and development services and plans geographic expansion deeper into Europe and across the Asia Pacific region. GO1 is an online learning platform that aggregates professional training and compliance courses from vetted content partners. Its catalog includes over 170,000 courses provided by about 100 partners and is available to more than 1.5 million users across 3,000+ customers. Usage on the platform has grown five-fold over the last 12 months and engagement reportedly tripled in the most recent month. GO1 can integrate with in-house learning management systems or provide its own, and it has strategic integrations with Microsoft Teams. The company is expanding its partner network and aims to continue growth in North America. GO1 is making COVID-19–related learning resources available for free to support teams during the pandemic. GO1 is an Australia-based training platform that provides online training services. The article identifies the company primarily by its training-platform product. GO1 has raised $30 million in a Series B financing. The round was led by M12, the corporate venture arm of Microsoft. The article notes M12 invests in next-generation technology companies. No additional financial details, operating metrics, or future plans were disclosed in the article. GO1 operates an online platform and marketplace where users can browse or create courses spanning compliance, onboarding, and personal development. The company says it hosts more than 500,000 courses and learning resources and has over 22 million users across clients such as Cricket Australia and Adshel. GO1 integrated its courses into Seek’s jobs platform so job seekers see relevant training during the hiring process; Seek is also a customer. The startup plans to use the new funding to expand into new markets around the world. Andrew Barnes, GO1 cofounder and CEO, framed the Seek investment as a step toward deepening the partnership and increasing global presence.

Participated · Equity · Aug 2021

expertlead operates an HRtech platform that helps companies find, evaluate and hire IT professionals by combining AI-driven talent identification with peer-to-peer technical screenings (video interviews, technical Q&As and live coding tests). The company places freelancers on a per-project basis and also offers objective technical assessments of applicants for permanent roles to accelerate hiring and reduce bias. Its community of freelancers can additionally serve as technical interviewers and receive benefits such as training, discounted insurance, coworking access and hardware deals. The startup employs around 100 people and reports it expects a +500% increase in revenue this year compared to last year. expertlead plans to invest the fresh funds into developing and expanding new and existing tools, growing the team, and launching a SaaS recruiting product that will let companies self-approach and assess millions of IT professionals. Its SaaS recruiting software is already used by Futurepath to recruit IT experts exclusively for the Volkswagen Group and is slated for wider customer availability. expertlead provides companies with access to a global pool of qualified tech freelancers to deliver tech roadmaps while avoiding complex candidate quality screening processes. Companies can upload their requests free of charge and typically receive suitable candidates' profiles within 48 hours. The platform vets senior developers, data science experts, experienced product/project managers and UI/UX designers using proprietary coding tests and technical interview processes. It also supports freelance tech professionals across project acquisition, administrative tasks, continuous training and peer-to-peer learning. Founded in January 2018 and based in Berlin, the company currently employs around 40 people and counts clients including Lufthansa, Daimler and Deutsche Bank. Following its Series A, expertlead plans to pursue international growth and further automate its products.

Participated · Series C · Jan 2021

Jobandtalent operates an AI-enabled marketplace that matches hourly and temporary workers with employers across sectors such as logistics and retail. The company says it has placed more than 300,000 workers at over 3,250 companies and runs operations in 10 countries across Europe, the U.S., and Latin America. Its core product combines a marketplace with AI tools to improve matching and fill rates for short-term roles. Jobandtalent is leaning into AI by building a suite of agents to automate recruiting and other functions, starting with Clara, a recruitment agent tested with clients. Management plans to use new capital to scale internationally and to roll out additional AI-powered agents this year. The company faces macro headwinds in a softer Eurozone labor market and uncertainty about AI's net impact on human jobs, which informs its current strategy and fundraising posture. Jobandtalent is a digital temporary-work (ETT) platform that began as a job board and pivoted to matching candidates and employers through its technology. The company pursued rapid international expansion, acquiring roughly a dozen to fifteen competitors and making the US its third-largest market by revenue. It reported revenues of €1,900 million in 2022 (up from €360 million in 2020) and closed 2022 with a positive EBITDA of €19.5 million after a negative first half. Jobandtalent invested more than €450 million in the two years prior to 2023 to support expansion and product development. Its financing strategy has shifted from venture debt (2017–2020) to growth debt (2021–2024) and the company says it plans to move to more traditional financing with more favorable terms. Jobandtalent operates a temporary job platform that matches people with work across multiple countries. The company was co-founded in 2009 by Felipe Navio and Juan Urdailes and is based in Madrid, Spain. In 2021 it placed over 200,000 people into roles at more than 2,000 companies across nine countries in Europe, Latin America and the USA. Jobandtalent received a $250M debt facility to strengthen its financial position. The company intends to use the funds to build out financial products for workers, including enabling daily payments and free early access to wages in most jurisdictions, and to support expansion into new markets. This financing follows a $500M Series E closed in December 2021 led by Kinnevik that valued the company at $2.4B post-money. Jobandtalent operates a workforce-as-a-service marketplace and digital temping agency that uses AI to match workers to casual labor gigs in manufacturing, warehousing, e-commerce and logistics. The company directly employs temps and provides an app to apply for roles, manage paperwork, sign contracts and receive pay, and offers benefits such as pensions, sick and holiday pay, health insurance and training. It runs in nine markets including Spain, the U.K., Germany, France, Sweden, Portugal, Mexico, Colombia and the U.S., and counts more than 1,300 client companies including DHL, FedEx, XPO, eBay and IKEA. Operating metrics cited include matching over 100,000 workers to roles in the first nine months of 2021, an average worker NPS of 56 (versus an industry average of 18), a 130% annual growth rate, EBITDA-positive since H2 2020, and an annual revenue run rate above €1 billion. The company says it offers greater stability for temps via an AI-aided pipeline of consistent work and by simplifying back-office functions for employers. Jobandtalent plans to use new funding to accelerate expansion—particularly in the U.S.—significantly grow its tech and sales teams over the next two years, and add key executive hires to scale operations. Jobandtalent operates a dual-sided marketplace that matches temps with employers across e-commerce, warehousing, logistics and manufacturing. Its platform uses learning algorithms to match workers with jobs and provides a CRM for employers with analytics to monitor workforce performance, plus payroll and administrative tools. The company also markets benefits to temps — including pensions, sick and holiday pay, health insurance in some markets and training — and aims to provide continuous employment through consecutive temp roles. Jobandtalent says more than 80,000 workers used its marketplace in the past year, its website lists 10M+ registered users, and over 850 companies including XPO, Ceva Logistics, eBay, Ocado, Sainsbury’s, Bayer and Santander have used the platform. Financially it reports growth from a €5M revenue run rate in 2016 to €500M in 2020, a positive EBITDA and year-on-year growth above 100%. Founded in 2009, the company is preparing to enter the U.S. market within a year and is also eyeing expansion into Italy and the Netherlands.