humaans Raises $5M Seed Funding - HR Software News

Humaans Secures $5 Million Seed Funding for HR Platform Development

Humaans, an HR technology startup headquartered in London, has successfully completed a $5 million seed funding round. The investment will be used to expedite the advancement of its employee on-boarding and management platform.

Investment Details

This funding round saw participation from Y Combinator, Moonfire (led by Mattias Ljungman), Frontline Ventures, and Lachy Groom, formerly of Stripe Issuing.

Furthermore, a diverse group of experienced entrepreneurs and startup leaders contributed to the round. This includes Jeff Weiner, CEO of LinkedIn (through Next Play Ventures), Claire Johnson, COO of Stripe, Dylan Field, CEO of Figma, and Des Traynor, co-founder of Intercom.

Additional investors encompass David Clarke, former CTO of Workday, Scott Belsky, former GP at Benchmark, Akshay Kothari, COO of Notion, Emre Baran, co-founder of Qubit, Shane Curren, CEO of Evervault, and Gerardo Di Giacomo, a security engineer at Stripe.

Company Origins and Growth

Humaans was founded by Giovanni Luperti and Karolis Narkevicius, both previously employed at Qubit. The company officially launched in April 2020, following a period of initial development and validation through a soft launch the prior year.

According to CEO Luperti, the company was initially funded through reinvestment of profits from their previous ventures. After demonstrating early commercial success, they opted to seek external investment and joined the Y Combinator program.

Platform Functionality and Market Positioning

Humaans positions itself as a central hub for employee on-boarding and management, functioning as a unified data source for staffing information.

The platform is designed to integrate seamlessly with existing Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) solutions commonly used within the HR technology landscape.

This approach reflects a growing trend among scaling companies to favor best-of-breed SaaS offerings over all-encompassing HR software suites.

Addressing HR Stack Challenges

“Organizations are encountering difficulties with fragmented HR systems, leading to inefficiencies and potential compliance issues,” Luperti explains.

“Consequently, the adoption of specialized HR solutions is rapidly increasing. Companies are prioritizing solutions that best meet their specific requirements and growth stage to effectively manage their workforce.”

Companies often utilize separate systems for applicant tracking, performance management, contract management, and employee engagement. This shift renders the traditional ‘all-in-one’ HR model obsolete, creating an opportunity for platforms like Humaans.

Humaans aims to provide an infrastructure layer for all employee data, automating processes such as on-boarding, off-boarding, and compensation management through customizable workflows, similar to those found in tools like IFTTT or Zapier.

User Experience and Target Market

“Feedback consistently indicates that employees often find existing HR software cumbersome and lacking in user-friendliness,” Luperti states.

“Historically, HR software providers have prioritized sales and acquisition over product retention. However, today’s HR buyers are more discerning and demand best-in-class solutions. We are striving to create the ‘Slack of HR’ – a platform that is both intuitive and powerful.”

Humaans reports a 3x growth in recent months and has gained traction among distributed teams, including companies like Pleo, ChartMogul, Bombinate, HeySummit, and Pento.

Luperti further clarifies their target market: “Existing players typically focus on either small-to-medium enterprises (SMEs) or large corporations. We are specifically targeting the companies that fall in between these two segments.”

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