ATLANTA--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Deputy, the award-winning workforce management software platform, today announced that it closed an $81 million USD Series B funding round to accelerate growth, transform the future of hourly-paid work through new, innovative products and build Australia’s finest product and engineering team. The funding is Australia’s largest Series B secured to date.
The fast-growing startup has more than one million users, and works with businesses like Amazon, Uber, HubSpot and Compass to empower their hourly-paid workforce. Deputy gives employees and employers simple-to-use software to help with time management, scheduling and other critical workplace operations.
To date, Deputy has scheduled 200 million shifts, equating to over 1.2 billion hours of work and facilitated over $30 billion in payroll payments.
“At Deputy, we’re making the lives of employers easier. Taking away some of the administrative strain and giving them untold hours back to focus on what matters: running their businesses, or spending time with their families,” said Deputy’s CEO and Co-Founder Ashik Ahmed. “We’ve had immense success up until now, but we’re only just getting started.”
“There are 2.3 billion hourly-paid workers in the world today, but too many of these are still managing their jobs in archaic ways,” continued Ahmed. “The opportunity here is huge: we envisage a day where every single shift being worked is powered by Deputy — and this funding allows us to build the best product and engineering team in the world that helps us get there.”
Record breaking funding
Deputy’s Series B funding round was led by Silicon Valley-based venture capital firm IVP, known for its investment in startup successes including, Dropbox, Snap, Slack and Twitter.
Alongside IVP, the funding round attracted investments from OpenView, who led Deputy’s $25 million Series A round, with Australian VC firms Square Peg Capital and EVP also participating. The deal represents the largest Series B raise in Australian history and brings Deputy’s total funding to date to $106 million.
“Having the backing and endorsement of IVP is a testament to the work that the entire Deputy team has put in to positively impact the future of work,” said Ahmed. “They’ve backed some of the most exciting generational software businesses, and we’re delighted to be in such good company.”
“We’re delighted with the investors who have backed Deputy: they’re the perfect partners for us, and bring a considerable amount of knowledge and expertise to the table,” continued Ahmed. “Not only will their support enable Deputy to scale and expand into new and existing markets, but we’ll be able to invest in enhancing our product to make real, tangible efficiency improvements to the way businesses operate globally.”
“IVP has a long history backing some of the most forward-thinking technology companies, many of which are solving some of the world’s biggest problems, and Deputy certainly fits within that criteria,” said Eric Liaw, General Partner at IVP, who will join Deputy’s board as part of the terms of the deal.
The future of work is transforming dramatically. In a trend that started decades ago, businesses and workers around the world are moving toward flexible, hourly-based work. While this offers both businesses and employers greater freedom, the coordination of shifts and schedules presents an increasingly complicated set of pain points for workers and businesses.
Existing solutions are antiquated; paper time clocks, whiteboards and spreadsheets are inadequate for an increasingly mobile workforce. Deputy brings a simple and effective technology solution to make work easier for workers and their employers.
“What impressed us the most is the quality of Deputy’s product,” continued Liaw. “We spoke to many happy customers who were crying tears of joy at the benefits of Deputy. Hourly workers were similarly thrilled, they have more flexibility to work as many or as few shifts as they like, with more predictability. Business managers love the improved visibility and reliability, they now cannot imagine going back to the Dark Ages and operating their business without Deputy’s suite of tools. We are excited to support Ashik, Steve and team as they work toward their goal of ‘Every shift in the world on Deputy.’”
An Australian startup success
Currently, Deputy has more than 200 employees across Australia, the U.S. and the UK. But that is all about to change.
“From a humble team of two in a back office in a southern Sydney suburb a decade ago, our team is now 200 strong,” said Ahmed. “With our new partner investors on board, we will be nearly significantly growing our team globally, with the lion’s share of head count pegged for building out Australia’s biggest and best engineering team as we rapidly continue to onboard leading tech talent from around the world.”
With customers ranging in size, this new funding round will allow Deputy to scale efficiently and effectively around the globe while simultaneously enhancing its offerings.
“We now have over 90,000 businesses globally from small coffee shops in Sydney’s suburbs, to behemoths like McDonalds in the U.S.,” continued Ahmed. “One of the best things about Deputy is that it can be scaled from small and medium-sized businesses to large enterprise accounts. There’s a huge global demand for our platform, particularly as hourly paid employees account for two-thirds of the global workforce.”
The team at Deputy has built the ultimate employee management tool: simplifying scheduling, timesheets, tasks and workplace communication — helping businesses transform their operations and empower employees to work the way they want. But they’re only just getting started.
Additional investor comments
Paul Bassat, Square Peg Capital:
“We have got to know Ashik and the Deputy team over the last few years and have an enormous level of admiration for the way in which they are focused on solving a really important problem for both employers and hourly workers around the world. Deputy holds the potential to become one of the most exciting businesses produced in Australia: locally founded but global in its impact. We are excited to back the business: it is a values led organization which is passionate about being a great place to work and providing great outcomes for its clients.”
Dan Demmer, Partner, OpenView:
“The team at Deputy has continued to impress us since we first started working with them in late 2016. Ashik’s vision to run every shift on Deputy is enabled by a constant focus on the customer and an efficient product led go-to-market strategy. With such an ambitious goal, Deputy is sure to have a lasting impact on the way people work. It’s an exciting time to be a part of Deputy’s journey, and we were delighted to invest again.”
Deputy is hiring. Click here to see a list of open vacancies.
About Deputy
Deputy is the ultimate employee management tool, simplifying scheduling, timesheets, tasks and workplace communication, helping businesses to transform operations and empowering employees to work the way they want.
Deputy connects businesses and employees seamlessly through technology to make work easier. Deputy is used by more than 90,000 workplaces across 70+ countries each day.
Deputy was founded in Australia in 2008 after Steve Shelley asked Ashik Ahmed to develop as a solution to his own business problems. The software soon became Steve’s “deputy” in the day-to-day running of the business, and together, Ashik and Steve set out to expand the software’s capabilities for other businesses. Today, Deputy has more than 200 employees across global offices in Australia, the UK and the U.S., and has raised in excess of $106 million to date. For more information, visit www.deputy.com, or find us on Twitter, Facebook, the App Store or Google Play.
