HRTECH Market Recap Q3-2021

Last quarter $12.9 Billion was invested in Work Technology, with major deals for Articulate ($1.5 Billion) and Visma ($1 Billion).

Worktech and HRTech seem to have a bright future. Especially now most companies are aware of the challenges that HR and the entire labour market is facing now, and will face in the future.

(visual and information by Venero Capital Advisors)

Talent Management reïnvented

With talent and skills becoming rare assets to acquire in an open market, talent acquisition will have to become very creative and transparent to attract new candidates. Popular these days are remote hiring and a focus on the skills of the own staff. Also the recovery of talent who were attracted for attitude before - but were not hired because of lacking skills – is an interesting way of completing a company’s team, which is lacking a team member.

By doing this, the talent acquisition process will become a part of the bigger HR picture with i.e. retention (employee experience) and performance (engagement) – but also innovative payrolling and administration of i.e. remote workers (in other countries).

About retention and performance, it feels safe to say that topics like Employee Experience, Learning & Development and Engagement have become an important part of the (Total) Talent Management Strategy - and Solutions.

(Visual by Pitchbook)

Notable dynamics

The market also seems aware of the increasing complexity of attracting talent across the border, other than they already knew working with their contingent workforce. Therefor, innovative payrolling and administration of remote workers is becoming a popular functionality and a hybrid workforce lies just around the corner (it seems to come along with hybrid work).

So after what happened in Q2, the dynamics on the HRTECH Market in Q3 only confirm all the above as an existing trend that is even accelerating in Q4.

First of all, after Facebook announcing to hire over 10k workers in Europe to help build the metaverse, US Venture Capital and Big investors are moving in on Europe according to CNBC.

Even better (from our point of view), according to Pitchbook they have an increasing interest in HRTech Startups as the world shifts to remote working tackling the challenges mentioned above.

And that is not surprising when even McKinsey is telling the world that European Tech Startups are nailing it.

Looking at a third quarter - including October - most fundings an acquisitions had a focus on remote workers; either attraction, experience, learning and retention, or talentmanagement and innovative payrolling.

We've listed the most notable dynamics for you:

• Spanish startup Factorial HR raised €80 Million in Series B. Factorial is committed to changing the way SMEs make decisions by automating HR processes and providing insights into the organization.

• Belgian Chronos Group acquired the Belgian selection- and matching solution Kazi, empowering the startup with a gigantic network.

• SAP acquired SwoopTalent Intellectual Property to Boost Talent Data Intelligence for Successfactors.

• US based global leader in Talent Management Experience Phenom Acquires My Ally. Bringing Advanced Automation to overwhelmed HR Teams . The deal solidifies Talent Experience Management’s role in enhancing recruiter productivity.

• Articulate, a SaaS training and development platform that has been bootstrapping since 2002, raised $1.5 Billion Series A out of nowhere to be valued at $3.75 Billion. We knew L&D is hot, but this is something we rarely see.

• Belgian startup Accountable raises €5.7M to help self-employed workers with financial management.

• Revolutionary US based Employee helpdesk platform Leena AI raises $30 million from Bessemer Venture Partners and others.

• Dutch assessment center GITP starts collaborating with Video-AI screening platform Neurolytics, bringing it to the market.

• Dutch HR Group Randstad announced that Randstad US has acquired Cella, a creative staffing and consulting agency with its own software. Are they considering rolling this out in Europe?

• Swedisch HR & Tech Group Assessio, acquired by Main Capital in 2019, has acquired Dutch e-assessment startup Elloo to grow their market.

• UK's Multiverse Group is building an alternative to college and corporate trainings via professional apprenticeships and raised $130 Million in Series C to do that over the ocean.

• Also, Microsoft keeps up the pace and acquired Ally.io to improve employee experience by aligning people’s work with team goals and company mission. If you remember the launch of Microsoft's Wellbeing Platform Viva, that runs on MS Teams and includes BI, this is an interesting move. After we have discovered there also is an LMS functionality and an integration with CornerstoneOnDemand, we will be keeping a close eye on Viva's further development.

• Paris-based Next Station secures €1.5 million to continue helping people find jobs abroad.

• Estonian edtech startup Lingvist raises €5.1 million to scale its language learning application to many more languages.

• US based HR Platform Hibob raises $150 Million in Series C, totalling a $274 Million of investments since 2015.

• London-based HR startup Deel raises over €366 million in Series D funding to continue transforming the future of work

• Nordic HR Software firm Visma draws new investors at $19 Billion valuation.

• French Startup Swile raises $210 Million in Series D to scale up its employee benefits card and app.

• German based Talent Management Platform Persionio released its PeopleWorkFlowAutomation and raised $270M in Series E, valuing the company at $6.3B – after it raised $125M in Series D in January this year.

Cliffhanger

HRTECH Valley has curated an extensive list of HRTECH Solutions that are active on the BeNe Market, to create the famous HRTECH Landscapes.

Last year we needed to expand the visual to two copies for a decent overview of categories and vendors.