Employment Hero, an Australia-based employment management platforms, has on Monday announced a Series F growth round of SGD 229 million ($168 million) to fuel its rapid global expansion.

Employment Hero said in a statement that the funding follows the company’s 2022 Series E and takes the total amount of capital it has raised to over SGD 572 million ($419 million).

This fundraise, was led by TCV. Its earlier backers Insight Partners, AirTree, Seek and OneVentures also participated in this raise.

The funding enables the company to accelerate growth into key international markets.

According to the statement, the firm has used the previous funding to develop an entire ecosystem of products and services through its all-in-one platform that make employment significantly better and easier for both employers and employees.

For founders Ben Thompson and Dave Tong, this fundraise is a further endorsement of their vision to create the world’s preeminent employment infrastructure and community – currently a fragmented industry worth around SGD 1.7 trillion ($1.25 trillion) annually.

“Whilst we were not actively seeking funding, our growth story has meant that we have received significant inbound investor interest – this has given us incredible confidence in our vision and allowed us to opportunistically boost our balance sheet, even at a time when the funding environment has been tight,” said Ben Thompson, Chief Executive Officer, Founder of Employment Hero.

According to him, within 12 months, Employment Hero will transcend the traditional confines of human resource (HR) and Payroll.

“We will open doors to a world where talent flows like water through a pipe, right to your doorstep. That’s the future we’re building,”

“Businesses can seamlessly plug into our unparalleled reservoir of talent, with automatic compliance and compensation mechanisms,” he said.

He also said the firm is on a trajectory to become the world’s largest centralized payroll and recruitment hub, reaching all markets with its highly automated infrastructure.

“Our sights are set on becoming a SGD 43 billion ($31.50 billion) plus business, so our financial aspirations match the scale of our global vision,” he added.

Employment Hero currently serves over 300,000 small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) and over two million employees globally.

Through continued vertical integration, the firm has built an all-in-one platform to recruit, onboard, pay and manage talent seamlessly and compliantly.

This gives business owners and managers peace of mind, and frees up their time to focus on growing their businesses.

For employees, the Employment Hero super-app, ‘Swag’, is a real-time control centre, empowering them to manage their work and financial lives efficiently and intelligently.

The app provides a range of benefits that help save members thousands of dollars each year, a highly relevant solution given the global inflation and cost-of-living squeeze.

“We are thrilled to support Employment Hero on the journey to make employment work better for employers and employees globally,” said Muz Ashraf, Partner at TCV.

According to him, the firm has been deeply impressed by the team’s ingenuity, grit, and velocity in solving one of the fundamental pain points facing small to medium-sized businesses.

Alexander Wortmann, Partner at TCV also said that Employment Hero is a best-in-class HRIS (human resources information system) platform, which is differentiated in offering integrated HR and payroll functionality across multiple geographies.

“By connecting businesses to a vast pool of talent, Employment Hero is now reimagining recruitment and payroll for the modern age,

“We look forward to partnering with Employment Hero’s talented team to execute on this exciting growth trajectory and global expansion,” he added.

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