Q2 continued the HR technology VC momentum across all categories. Here are a few things that stood out to us as we tracked and compiled the data:
You won’t find a slow down here. We tracked $1.448 Billion USD of VC investment in Q2 2019. That’s bigger than any quarter in 2018. At the mid point in the year, we’re less than $1 Billion away from all of the VC we tracked in 2018.
There were four more mega rounds, defined as deals with a value of at least $100 million.
HCM, with three of the mega rounds led the pack even more so than usual.
Wellness had the biggest deal that we’ve seen in years, with Gympass taking their wellness app and consumer membership model into the employee benefits space.
Several new startups are closing the skills gap by providing tuition free education and access to jobs. One of them, SV Academy, provides education for sales/business development and does NOT charge candidates. We expect to see more of these, and similar, models pop up.
The biggest rounds in recruiting tech VC continues to be for suites and platforms.
As you can see in the report, the investment trends do align with workforce and tech trends that employers are demonstrating in our primary and secondary research. However, this report only looks at this point in time – the trends reflected, and the vendors that received the funding in this quarter. While a vendor in this report may be aligned with a trend, the timing of their investment by no means reflects validation of their product, or their competitive standing. We’re not financial analysts, and we aren’t making any recommendations of the sort.
If you’re interested in a longer trend line, we’ve just announced access to our Global HR Tech VC Database, where you can slice and dice the data we’ve tracked since January of 2017.
As a leader in HR with any concern for technology and its impact on the work of the future it is important to look at this report and the trends reflected to get a sense of what tech is “in the funnel.”
Three additional resources will help you get a handle on the trends and emerging tech in the workplace:
- HRTechBook, a new global directory of HR tech providers, brought to you by HRWins, Aptitude Research, Lighthouse Research, and H3HR Advisors. No ads. No ratings to game. Just help finding the HR tech that you need.
- The 2019 Workplace Intelligence Report developed in partnership with Greenhouse. It definitely points to some areas where technology can help us improve.
- HRWins VC and M&A page you’ll find M&A deal news, VC reports, annual look backs, and VC deal by deal analysis as they happen.
Of course, we’re also available to chat with you regarding any deeper insights you may require.
Enjoy the report, and please let us know if you have any questions.