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More than $12.3 billion of venture capital was poured into HR tech startups in 2021. 2022 has started out with a similar trend—just four deals have accounted for $1.4 billion of fundraising in the space. In an increasingly crowded industry, The Org compiled a list of 50 U.S. HR tech startups to look out for this year.
Human resources teams—which are increasingly referred to as People and Culture teams within tech startups— are managing an ever-increasing amount of information about their employees.
As a result, the reliance on tools and software that help keep track of everything from a recruiting pipeline to vaccination records and standardized onboarding procedures to workplace culture surveys has been more and more crucial for People leaders to carry out their jobs.
“An HR tech stack is now necessary,” Garret Star, Director of Partnerships at Greenhouse, told The Org. “These tools are helping HR managers automate manual processes, save time and remove human error.”
The Org put together a list of 50 emerging HR tech startups that have raised more than $30 million since the start of 2020. about our biggest takeaways for the industry below.
HR tech by the numbers
To help sort through the list of software companies, The Org’s research team sorted each HR Tech startup into one of six categories:
- Recruiting
- Payroll & Benefits
- Learning & Development
- Performance Management
- Workplace Culture
- Operations Management
While this is not an exhaustive list of what Human Resources and People and Culture teams cover, a few trends emerged while compiling this year’s list.
1. Recruiting software dominates the space
With 18 out of 50 startups (36%) gaining fundraising traction in the past two years dedicated to recruiting workflows, it’s clear that hiring and recruiting talent will be a competitive space to watch.
2. Investors are opening up their wallets
The startups on this list have raised over $6 billion in venture capital all together, with the average HR tech raising $123 million since 2020.
This follows last year’s trend, in which HR tech startups globally raised in 2021—roughly 3.6 times the amount raised in 2020.
2022 has started out with a similar bang for HR tech. Just have accounted for $1.4 billion of capital raised by HR tech startups this year.
However, even if HR techs are gaining investor’s attention, its returns are still uncertain. None of the HR techs featured on this list have passed a billion-dollar valuation, meaning the age of HR tech unicorns might be upon us later in the year.
3. California is the HR tech hub
Our roundup includes 50 companies with headquarters based in the U.S.
Even though several of the companies on this list are remote or have multiple offices around the country and even the globe, Silicon Valley is crowned as the top place to run an HR tech startup.
24 HR tech startup HQs live in the San Francisco Bay Area, with the next biggest hub in New York, with 13 startups. The Los Angeles area counts four, and nine other U.S. cities are represented.
50 Emerging HR Techs
The table below rounds up all 50 HR tech startups we compiled based on most recent fundraising rounds and valuations.
Click on a company name to see the org chart for that startup, which leaders to see the leaders are behind these massive fundraising rounds, which teams are hiring currently and more.
| Logo | Company Org Chart | Category | Funding | Series | __Location __ | Team Size |
| ---------- | ---------- | ---------- | ---------- | ---------- | ---------- | ---------- |
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