Borderless AI Secures $27 Million in Funding
March 27, 2024 – Borderless AI, an AI-powered startup in the Employer of Record (EOR) space, has raised $27 million in seed funding. The seed round was led by Susquehanna and Aglaé Ventures, the venture arm of Bernard Arnault, with participation from additional institutional investors. The company was founded by serial entrepreneur Willson Cross and Lyft’s founding investor Sean Aggarwal. “As the first company in the world to bring AI agents to HR, we are firm believers that AI agents will become commonplace for companies just like websites in the 90s and mobile apps in the 2000s,” said Willson Cross, co-founder and CEO of Borderless AI. “Leveraging conversational AI, our platform automates many of the complexities within the global HR stack, without hallucinations, such as payroll set-up, time-off requests, or employment agreement generation. Our AI is fluent in a multitude of languages, allowing for geographic expansion and successful deployment of business operations around the globe.”
“Our mission is to bring economic empowerment to the world,” said Sean Aggarwal, co-founder and executive chairman of Borderless AI. “With our AI first approach to HR, we’re removing geographic barriers and democratizing access to the best job opportunities for talented people around the globe, and we’re excited to see the possibilities it opens for employers and employees alike.”
“The HR industry is ripe for innovation and Borderless AI is one of those companies that has the rare combination of industry expertise, product innovation, and a deeply committed and capable founding team,” said Miyuki Matsumoto, partner at Aglaé Ventures. “Globalization isn’t going anywhere and companies will rely on seamless technology like Borderless AI and Alberni to help them scale successfully on a global level. We strongly believe that AI agents for HR will become mainstream and we’re thrilled to be a part of this journey.”
Borderless AI’s mission is to leverage the power of generative AI to automate and accelerate the process of onboarding, managing, and paying international team members. Removing compliance, payment, tax law, and onboarding challenges of the past, Borderless AI’s novel AI agent, Alberni, can solve complex problems and automate processes in any country around the world within 10 minutes.
Investment Funding
Investors are pouring money into recruiting solutions businesses, especially those with a psychology and data science component. Here’s a look at some other recent funding deals secured by these companies from the Hunt Scanlon Media archives:
Nursa, a per diem nursing recruiting platform, recently completed an $80 million series B funding round. The round was led by Drive Capital, a Columbus, OH-based venture capital firm. Joining the round were existing partners Pelion Venture Partners, a Salt Lake City, UT-based venture capital firm, and Kickstart Fund, a Cottonwood Heights, UT-based venture capital firm. Total funding at Salt Lake City-based Nursa is now $100 million. “Recruiting firms — even ones with technology — are severely limited in their ability to find specialized nurses with experience and credentials to fit their patient needs,” said Molly Bonakdarpour, general partner of Drive Capital. “Typically, these groups are limited to their existing networks, require contracts and can’t staff for true per diem, increasing unnecessary costs for providers.”
Candidate.fyi recently secured a $1.3 million pre-seed funding round. The company’s platform offers a candidate portal for candidates to receive information in their journey, pulse surveys to collect feedback from job candidates, the ability for job candidates to book meetings online and create profiles and an upcoming scheduling feature. Founded by brothers, Kyle and Chris Connors, with expertise derived from roles with Google and technical leadership positions, candidate.fyi integrates with existing workflows and over 40 applicant tracking systems to automate candidate preparation, scheduling, communication, and feedback. Some of its clients include Synthesia, Tropic, Yext, Thrive Market, and MariaDB.
San Francisco based Instawork, a platform for connecting businesses with skilled hourly workers, has raised $60 million in a series D funding round led by TCV. The round also included participation from new investors 9Yards Capital and Larry Fitzgerald Jr., as well as existing investors Benchmark, Spark Capital, Craft Ventures, and Greylock. With this new funding, Instawork intends to accelerate investment in its AI-powered mobile app and platform, which connects over 4 million skilled hourly workers with tens of thousands of businesses. “We are excited to partner with TCV and our other new and existing investors to continue our mission of making work more flexible and rewarding for everyone,” said Sumir Meghani, co-founder and CEO of Instawork. “This funding will allow us to accelerate our investment in AI and machine learning, which will help us better match businesses with the skilled workers they need, and help workers find the shifts that fit their schedules and lives.”
HR software start-up Rippling has raised $500 million in a new funding round initially intended to help customers make payroll in the aftermath of Silicon Valley Bank’s (SVB) collapse. The round, led by technology investor Greenoaks Capital, gave Rippling the same valuation of $11.25 billion it had clinched after its previous capital raise last year, the company said. Rippling announced in a March 17 blog post that it received a $500 million series E funding round. Putting the round together took less than three days and took place after the SVB collapse, according to the post. It also noted that it has moved its banking operations to JPMorgan Chase.
Related: WilsonHCG Secures $120 Million in Funding from 3i Group
Contributed by Scott A. Scanlon, Editor-in-Chief; Dale M. Zupsansky, Executive Editor; Lily Fauver, Senior Editor – Hunt Scanlon Media
