LOS ANGELES--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Bambee, the company that makes Human Resources affordable for small to medium-sized businesses, today announced a $30 million dollar Series C round, bringing its total funding to $65 million. The investments will be deployed across four areas: Bambee Guided Payroll and HR Autopilot products, adding new customer benefits, expanding customer and HR manager teams to deliver world class service, and growing engineering teams. The company grew topline by 100% in 2021 and is on track to double again in 2022. The company has nearly 10,000 active subscribers. With this new investment, Bambee plans to hire an additional 150 employees this year and expand its operations in Nashville, Tennessee.
In this latest round, SoftBank joined QED, leader of both Series B and C rounds, and AlphaEdison, who led the Series A round. Key investments were also made by Mucker Capital, Ken Chenault (chairman and managing director, General Catalyst; and former CEO and chairman of American Express), Damian Maldonado (CEO and founder at American Financing and American Home Agent), and Gaingels (the LGBTQIA+/Allies investment syndicate).
Founded in 2016 by CEO Allan Jones, who was previously the CMO of ZipRecruiter (NYSE: ZIP), Bambee is reshaping work experiences for employees across America. Bambee aims to be the conduit that reduces the friction-filled relationship that exists at companies due to a lack of HR expertise and strategy. The vast majority of the 5.6M small businesses in the U.S. do not have a professional HR manager on staff, in most cases because the cost of a full-time professional is unaffordable. This not only leaves businesses exposed to the most common and preventable HR compliance issues, but also can negatively impact employee morale and retention at a time when small American enterprises are struggling to recruit talent.
Starting at $99 per month, Bambee customers get a combination of HR Autopilot, which automates common, yet important HR practices such as employee onboarding, policy signing, training, and two-way feedback; and a dedicated HR Manager, there for guidance and coaching on more complex HR matters, such as HR strategy, employee coaching, conflict resolution and terminations. Employers also benefit from Guided Payroll™, the first-ever payroll product with built-in HR guidance. Bambee’s Guided Payroll product is free in the first year for companies and start-ups with less than 20 employees–meaning 4+ million American businesses who employ 30+ million American workers now have easy access to guided payroll. For more mature small companies, Bambee’s payroll product is priced for maximum affordability, at 70% under the market average rate(1).
“Having QED and Alpha Edison commit to our vision is a great validation of what we’ve been able to achieve in the past 14 months,” CEO Jones said. “And now, we feel incredibly fortunate to welcome SoftBank, along with support from Ken Chenault. The new funding gets to work from day one. We are enhancing HR Autopilot, adding features and benefits to Bambee Guided Payroll, and doubling the size of our staff to support our forecasted customer growth. We are currently building out our Nashville tech hub, where most of our engineers live and work, along with 150 total new employees, primarily in our Los Angeles headquarters, with the emphasis on the HR Manager team and customer support.”
“Millions of small businesses are underserved in tools and staffing to manage the ever-increasing complexity of human resources compliance and payroll,” noted Matt Risley, of QED. “Since QED first led Bambee’s Series B in 2020, we’ve seen the company scale phenomenally and we are excited to continue to back a world-class team and founder to become the backbone of Main Street’s people management.”
Nate Redmond at Alpha Edison concurs: “More than 90% of small businesses lack a dedicated HR professional. Bambee’s innovation creates an affordable solution that delivers empathy and trust at scale. This trust extends into an HR platform that creates more fulfilling work for hundreds of thousands of employees. We have worked with Allan from the formation of Bambee and strongly believe in his ability to lead and build an enduring company.”
ABOUT BAMBEE
Allan Jones founded Bambee in 2016. Bambee has been at the forefront of solving HR problems for small businesses since its inception. Bambee puts their customers HR on autopilot, starting with a dedicated HR manager and smart automation. Bambee helps each company navigate the complex regulatory world of compliance, HR policy, employee relations, and HR strategy -- including internal investigations, hires, furloughs, and return to work procedures. The combination of a real HR manager coupled with an intelligent software platform gets Bambee customers to HR compliance, and helps keep them compliant. In October 2021, Goldman Sachs celebrated Jones as one of the 100 most intriguing entrepreneurs, at their Builders + Innovators Summit. For three years running, Forbes has named Bambee a top startup employer in the U.S., and in 2022 listed Bambee as top 5 in Los Angeles. Learn more at www.Bambee.com.
ABOUT SOFTBANK GROUP
The SoftBank Group invests in breakthrough technology to improve the quality of life for people around the world. The SoftBank Group is comprised of SoftBank Group Corp. (TOKYO: 9984), an investment holding company that includes stakes in telecommunications, internet services, AI, smart robotics, IoT and clean energy technology providers; the SoftBank Vision Funds, which are investing more than US$135 billion to help extraordinary entrepreneurs transform industries and shape new ones; the US$5 billion SoftBank Latin America Fund, the largest venture fund in that region; the newly-launched US$3 billion SoftBank Latin America Fund II; and the SB Opportunity Fund, a US$100 million fund dedicated to investing in enterprises founded by entrepreneurs of color in the U.S. To learn more, please visit https://group.softbank/en.
ABOUT QED INVESTORS
QED Investors is a leading boutique venture capital firm based in Alexandria, VA. QED Investors is focused on investing in early-stage, disruptive financial services companies in North America, South America, and the United Kingdom. QED is dedicated to building great businesses and uses a unique, hands-on approach that leverages its partners’ decades of entrepreneurial and operational experience, helping companies achieve breakthrough growth. Notable investments include Credit Karma, ClearScore, Nubank, SoFi, Avant, Remitly, Flywire, GreenSky, Klarna, QuintoAndar, Konfio, Creditas, and Mission Lane.
ABOUT ALPHA EDISON
Alpha Edison is an investment platform that partners with courageous entrepreneurs to build category-creating companies. Our cognitively diverse team helps founders understand latent demand, unlock new markets and scale businesses that change our world–for the better.
ABOUT MUCKER CAPITAL
Mucker Capital invests in seed and "pre-seed" stage companies building defensible and scalable businesses in Internet software, services and media. The firm partners with exceptional entrepreneurs who have deep domain expertise, with a focus in the greater Los Angeles area. Mucker Capital goes beyond funding to work side-by-side with entrepreneurs, providing support and resources in critical areas like product development, customer development, business development, operational infrastructure, and recruiting. The partners and the Mucker Capital network provide a wealth of experience and expertise to help their portfolio companies succeed.
(1) Market average payroll rate based on advertised rates for well-known payroll providers and does not include any promotional or introductory offers that may be available. Although the information used in the market average cost is presented in good faith and believed to be correct at the time of printing, Bambee makes no representations or warranties as to the completeness or accuracy of the information.
