Putting In Overtime: 125+ HR Tech Startups In One Infographic

Year-to-date, there have been over 350 deals and approximately $1.96B invested to HR tech startups. At the current run-rate, 2016 deal count will surpass last year’s total, but dollars from these deals may lag 2015’s funding total.

While investors haven’t invested at the same dollar pace this year, the increased deal count in 2016 suggests investors are still finding opportunities in the category. With deal count reaching all-time highs, we dug into HR tech on a more granular level to analyze where investors are placing bets.

We used CB Insights data to identify 125+ HR tech companies and mapped them according to 13 categories within HR tech. These HR tech startups are helping companies manage critical pain points in HR processes such as recruitment, automation, career development, compensation, and benefits management, through a mix of software and services.

This list contains companies that recently raised large rounds, are well-funded within the category, or have high scores on Mosaic, CB Insights’ proprietary algorithm that uses financial and nonfinancial signals to predict private company health. For more information on CB Insights’ Mosaic scoring tool read here.

Click on the image below to enlarge. This market map is not meant to be exhaustive of companies in the space. 

Below are the primary HR tech categories in our market map:

Career Development / Coaching: These tools help employees reach development goals and provide employers with business intelligence through learning management systems (LMS), continuous feedback collection tools, and other platforms focused on employee development. Companies include Zugata, a mobile collaboration and development tool and coaching application BetterUp.

Workplace Culture: These companies help promote workplace goodwill, improve culture, and administer perks and rewards. Category includes perks marketplace AnyPerk and charitable donation site Benevity.

Compensation and Benefits: These companies create software that allow companies to manage payroll, benefits, compliance, and insurance administration. Companies include Gusto, Justworks, Namely, Zenefits, and Beisen, as well as health insurance comparison tools SimplyInsured and Lumity.

Note: Gusto, Justworks, Namely and Zenefits have all expanded on initial insurance brokerage and payroll services to include workforce optimization tools in an effort to provide customers with an all-in-one HR administration platform.

Flexible Hiring: These companies provide a centralized platform for on-demand workers, part-time freelancers or consultants, and part-time jobs. This category reflects the growing gig-economy and employee’s desire for flexible work arrangements. Companies include freelance marketplace Field Nation and Staff Finder, a marketplace for contractors and part-time hires.

Tech Hiring: These companies provide a centralized platform for on-demand technology talent for part-time, freelance, and full-time jobs as well as tools to help screen tech talent. This category appeals to the growing demand for technology talent and includes tech marketplaces Andela and Entelo.

College / Graduate Hiring: These companies provide a centralized platform for job postings and internships that target college students and recent graduates. Companies include career network and recruitment platforms Handshake and WayUp.

Background Checking: These companies provide screening tools to run background checks on potential hires. These include SterlingBackCheck, Onfido, and Checkr.

Salary Comparison Tools: These tools can be used to compare the market salary for positions, compensation, and workplace culture. These companies include PayScale, Comparably, and Paysa.

Staffing / Scheduling: Provide software that helps manage staff scheduling, optimize headcount and expenses, and plan for human capital needs.  This includes scheduling tool Planday and Homebase, a platform to manage time-sheets and schedules for employees that work remotely.

Job Board / Resources: These companies provide a centralized platform for companies to post openings and a marketplace to attract a continuous funnel of talent to fill openings. These companies are emerging globally to help countries address recruitment and include Japan-based job marketplace Bizreach and China-based marketplace Dajie.

HR Automation: These services provide a platform to centralize and bring consistency to onboarding, managing employee profiles, manage employee assessments and time reporting, and provide engagement analytics. Includes workforce analytics platform hiQ Labs and ThinkHR, an employee on-boarding platform.

Candidate Screening / Vetting: These companies provide recruitment tools that help vet applicants for companies in advance of an interview. Includes companies that administer tests and assessments to gauge candidate skills and analytics, such as Phenom People and Hired.

Candidate Tracking and Relationship Management: This category includes applicant tracking system (ATS) software and candidate relationship management (CRM) tools that centralize candidate information and provide a platform for companies to collaborate and holistically review applicants. This includes ATS software companies Greenhouse Software, iCIMS, and Lever.

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