{"id":2628,"date":"2017-01-05T16:42:29","date_gmt":"2017-01-05T16:42:29","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rsoftsolution.com\/blog\/after-spurring-ma-from-google-namely-raises-50m-to-take-on-the-biggies-in-hr.html"},"modified":"2017-01-05T16:42:29","modified_gmt":"2017-01-05T16:42:29","slug":"after-spurring-ma-from-google-namely-raises-50m-to-take-on-the-biggies-in-hr","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rbsitsoftwaresolution.in\/blog\/after-spurring-ma-from-google-namely-raises-50m-to-take-on-the-biggies-in-hr.html","title":{"rendered":"After spurring M&A from Google, Namely raises $50M to take on the biggies in HR"},"content":{"rendered":"


\n<\/p>\n

One of the big HR startup stories of the last year has been the trials and tribulations of Zenefits, but news coming out today from another company in the space shows that there is still a lot of opportunity in the industry with the right approach.<\/p>\n

Namely<\/a>, a New York-based SaaS HR firm that focuses on mid-sized (100 to 1,000 employees) companies offering an all-in-one human resources platform, payroll and benefits services, today announced that it has raised $50 million, closing out a Series D totalling $80 million, which Namely said was the biggest round for an HR startup in 2016 amid some $2.5 billion in funding in a very fragmented market.<\/p>\n

This Series D \u2014 led by\u00a0Altimeter Capital and Scale Venture Partners, with\u00a0previous investors including\u00a0Sequoia Capital, Matrix Partners, and True Ventures also participating \u2014\u00a0<\/span>will be used not only to grow Namely\u2019s existing business, but to expand it into new products, Matt Stratz, the\u00a0CEO and founder of Namely, told TechCrunch in an interview.<\/p>\n

Namely\u00a0has been one of the trailblazers in bringing HR into the cloud, applying data science to its aggregation algorithms, and offering its tools in a software-as-a-service model, but interestingly its newest product will take it back to more old-school parts of the HR world: timekeeping, and a new (its first) piece of hardware for businesses that employ\u00a0hourly workers and use punchcards to mark the time.<\/p>\n

Straz said that this move was made in part to address a geographic area where Namely is growing fastest right now: the central and southern U.S., where there are more businesses based on the hourly working model who may be less interested (at least for now) in apps and SaaS to do the job.<\/p>\n

The Series D\u00a0was made at an upround compared to its previous valuation, but\u00a0Straz\u00a0wouldn\u2019t comment on\u00a0what its valuation is. Sources say it\u2019s not yet hitting \u201cunicorn\u201d levels of $1 billion although one investor hinted that it\u2019s close. Straz \u2014 a repeat entrepreneur whose other exits have included selling Pictela to AOL in 2010<\/a>\u00a0\u2014\u00a0said he believes this will be the last round Namely raises before it goes for an IPO \u201cas a billion-dollar company.\u201d<\/p>\n

Namely\u2019s ambitions to stay independent and go public are notable because the company has been an MA target for several companies. They include Google, which we\u2019ve been able to confirm with a source close to the company did indeed try to buy the Namely\u00a0last year, as part of a bigger push into cloud-based enterprise services<\/a>\u00a0and products that target mid-sized companies.<\/p>\n

(While Namely has so far rejected acquisition offers from \u201cthe usual suspects\u201d and others, in a way, it would be a perfect match for Google because of its application of search technology to finding appropriate benefits programs and other services for employees and employers.)<\/p>\n

While Zenefits more than halved its valuation in 2016, lost its CEO, faced numerous regulatory issues and had to lay off a large number of staff, Namely \u2014 which also competes against the biggies like ADP as well as other startups like Gusto \u2014 paints a different picture of the world of HR startups.<\/p>\n

Namely today has 650 companies as\u00a0customers globally, totalling some 120,000 employees and $4 billion in processed payrolls.\u00a0It\u2019s not yet profitable, Straz told me, but \u201cthat is on our roadmap in the next couple of years,\u201d and in the meantime, the focus is on \u201csustainable growth.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cWe are growing fast, but not at an unsustainable rate. We\u2019ve always had a different path,\u201d he said when describing why Namely is different from Zenefits. Part of that has included \u201calways focusing on compliance,\u201d and employees that are experienced in HR. \u201cOur staff is not populated by kids right out of college,\u201d as Straz bluntly put it. Recent exec hires include a new VP of product who is an alum of TurboTax and\u00a0Quickbooks and a VP of compliance who came from MetLife.<\/p>\n

And Zenefits\u2019 loss\u00a0has been Namely\u2019s gain in its target market of mid-sized companies. \u201cWe\u2019ve had no negative impact from Zenefits \u2014 in fact we\u2019ve absorbed dozens\u00a0of their customers,\u201d he said. \u201cThe funniest thing that\u2019s happened is that a year and a half ago, investors asked us, \u2018Why aren\u2019t you more like Zenefits?\u2019 Now they are asking, \u2018So\u00a0how are you different?’\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cNamely is truly the leading HR platform for mid-sized companies everywhere,\u201d adds Stacey Bishop, partner at Scale Venture Partners, in a statement. \u201cThey\u2019ve made HR a differentiator for their clients\u2014 providing the best possible experience for employers and employees alike. We are thrilled to partner with Namely as they continue to transform the industry.\u201d <\/span><\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

Featured Image: Marcin Wichary<\/a>\/Flickr<\/a> UNDER A CC BY 2.0<\/a> LICENSE<\/small><\/p>\n

Article source: http:\/\/feedproxy.google.com\/~r\/techcrunchIt\/~3\/fnGtfe20F4A\/<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

One of the big HR startup stories of the last year has been the trials and tribulations of Zenefits, but news coming out today from another company in the space <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[19],"tags":[25],"class_list":["post-2628","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-enterprise-software","tag-enterprise"],"aioseo_notices":[],"aioseo_head":"\n\t\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t