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Employment Hero

“Can an HR/payroll platform become the full 'Employment Operating System' — owning wages, super, benefits and money movement — for global SMBs?”

Founded2014
HQSydney, Australia
FoundersBen Thompson, Dave Tong
Total raised$650M+
Latest roundSeries F, 2023
Valuation~$2B (2023)
IndustryHorizontal SaaS / HR & Payroll
The story

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.

Last 12 months
2025-08
2025-12
2026-05
Product timeline
2014
Founded in Sydney by Ben Thompson and Dave Tong as a cloud HR platform· pivot
2018
Launched InstaPay — early wage access feature ($100–$250 draws from Employment Hero funding pool)· lending
2019
Series C led by SEEK, $22.5M· funding
2023
Series F, $263M AUD led by TCV — valuation ~$2B· funding
2024
Acquired Humi (Canadian HR/payroll)· acquisition
2025
Launched HeroClear — embedded super-clearing and validation via New Payments Platform, partnering with Zepto and OZEDI· banking
2025
Launched HeroForce Employer of Record across 150+ countries· pivot
2026
Introduced Hero AI agents (Recruitment, HR, Payroll)· pivot
Acquisitions
Humi2024
Canadian HR, payroll and benefits platform — now being integrated as 'Humi by Employment Hero' and migrated onto the global EH platform framework
Employment Innovations
Australian outsourced HR/payroll and advisory services business, referenced as an EH affiliate in the DPA
Regulated entities
1
regulatory licence held by Employment Hero
Licence types, jurisdictions and registered entities are in the Embedded Finance Index report.
The stack
5 layers disclosed in Employment Hero’s embedded-finance stack
Payments / PSP
Zepto
Lending
in the full report
Payroll
in the full report
Investing
in the full report
Accounting
in the full report
Accounting gap: minor
18 more providers across 4 layers, with confidence-scored evidence and source URLs, are in the Embedded Finance Index report.