Ease announced a $41 million Series C round of venture capital for its employee benefits administration and HRIS for small businesses. This brings its total raised to $70 million.
The SMB is a large market segment for HR-focused tech. With a focus on the smallest employers, having between 2 and 250 employees, Ease has its competition cut out for it. Professional employer organizations (PEO) are a popular option for employee sizes of up to about 100. Payroll and HRIS providers in this segment also tend to provide benefits administration tech as part of their offerings along. Many also providing PEO services. Ease’s answer to this competitive landscape looks to be partnerships with insurance agencies, connecting insurance carriers and benefits data connected through its “EaseConnect+” product.
Ease currently positions “payroll integration” as an offering in its core product. While the ability to integrate with payroll keeps them out of competition with the likes of ADP and Paychex, the lack of a payroll offering will put a drag on Ease’s ability to scale into the “larger SMB” segment with employee sizes up to 500.
WorkTech tracks the total addressable market for the combined HRIS and benefits tech categories in the US for employers in Ease’s current target market segment between $40 billion and $45 billion.
$2.7 billion was invested globally in work tech during 2021 Q1 alone. $578 million was invested in benefits and HRIS technology during the same quarter. Get WorkTech’s free report and analysis here.