Hibob Rakes In $70M To Expand HR Software Footprint

Hibob closed a $70 million Series B as it looks to expand globally, grow its go-to-market operations and possibly look for acquisitions.

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The new round was led by SEEK and Israel Growth Partners. Previous investors  Bessemer Venture Partners, Battery Ventures, Eight Roads Ventures, Arbor Ventures, Presidio Ventures, Entree Capital, Cerca Partners and Perpetual Investors also participated.

The company now has raised a total of $124 million since its launching in late 2015.

“During COVID, Hibob realized phenomenal business growth,” said co-founder and CEO Ronni Zehavi.

The changing world of work

Tel Aviv-based Hibob launched its human resource information system platform, bob, in 2015.

“We realized five years ago the way people work was changing,” Zehavi said. “We felt we had the opportunity to build something from the ground up.”

Millennials and GenZ-ers entering the workforce were demanding more remote and collaborative tools, he said. Hibob’s platform allows for that with integrations to enterprise resource planning systems and collaborative platforms such as Slack, Zehavi added.

While legacy HR companies such as Oracle, SAP, ADP and Workday sell to the enterprise market and startups like San Francisco-based Gusto focus on SMBs, Hibob goes after the mid-sized market often ignored by these companies, Zehavi said.

That strategy has led to four consecutive years of triple-digit growth and more than 1,000 companies using the platform, he added.

The 160-employee company believes it can build off that growth with its new money by expanding its go-to market operations and even will look for acquisitions that could bring in technology or talent, Zehavi said.

About 60 percent of the company’s sales come from Europe, and Zehavi said there is more room to expand there, Zehavi added. Hibob has three offices—Tel Aviv, London and New York—across which its leadership team is spread.

Potential future exits

Zehavi is not new to the world of founding startups. In 2012 he sold web and mobile services provider Cotendo to Akamai for approximately $268 million.

However, he said he believes Hibob’s opportunity in the space–estimated to be around $9 billion–is extremely large, and the company could retain its independence for the foreseeable future.

Andrew Bassat, CEO and co-founder of investor SEEK, said his firm does not believe the space is a winner-takes-all market. However, he said, the firm does think in such a large and fragmented market that consolidation and collaboration is likely to occur more significantly over time.

“We are a very long-term investor, so our only focus is to help Hibob reach its full potential and our focus is not on a specific future path,” he said. “But we will always be open to conversations that can support the growth of the business.”

Note: A previous version of this article contained incorrect information: Perpetual Investors also participated in the round.

Illustration: Li-Anne Dias.