“Can an HR/payroll platform become the full 'Employment Operating System' — owning wages, super, benefits and money movement — for global SMBs?”
Founded 2014 as a cloud HR platform for Australian SMBs, Employment Hero has consistently layered embedded finance onto its HR/payroll core — starting with InstaPay (EWA) in 2018, expanding into perks, insurance and EAP benefits, and most recently launching HeroClear in 2025 to move superannuation clearing onto Australia's real-time NPP rails ahead of Payday Super reforms. Post-Series F it has expanded internationally (NZ, UK, SG, MY, Canada via Humi) and is now positioning itself as an AI-first 'Employment Operating System' with HeroForce as a global EOR arm.
Employment Hero processes payments through Zepto.
Employment Hero's lending and capital products are provided by Employment Hero (in-house).
Employment Hero's payroll is powered by Employment Hero (in-house).
Employment Hero's investing and wealth products are powered by Employment Hero (in-house).
Employment Hero integrates with Xero, QuickBooks, Sage Intacct, FreshBooks, Zoho Books, NetSuite, Saasu, Odoo and 5 others.
The Embedded Finance Index 2026 maps 5 layers in Employment Hero's stack: Payments / PSP (Zepto); Lending (Employment Hero (in-house), InstaPay (legacy) and Earned Wage Access); Payroll (Employment Hero (in-house)); Investing (Employment Hero (in-house)); Accounting (Xero, QuickBooks, Sage Intacct, FreshBooks and 9 others).
Employment Hero was founded by Ben Thompson and Dave Tong and is founded in 2014, headquartered in Sydney, Australia.
Employment Hero has raised $650M+ in total (latest round: Series F, 2023; valuation: ~$2B (2023)).
Employment Hero's acquisitions include Humi (2024) and Employment Innovations.
Get a read on where your own stack stands against Employment Hero and the rest of its category — what they built versus bought, which providers they use, and where the gaps in your own strategy and competitive set actually are.