Deputy, a workforce management software program based in Atlanta and Sydney, Australia, has closed a $81 million Series B round---the largest Series B in Australian history.
The round was led by Silicon Valley-based VC firm IVP and included previous investor OpenView and Australian VC firms Square Peg Capital and EVP. IVP has previously invested in Dropbox, Snap, Slack and Twitter. The newest round brings Deputy's total amount raised to $106 million, according to a news release.
“Having the backing and endorsement of IVP is a testament to the work that the entire Deputy team has put in to positively impact the future of work,” Deputy co-founder and CEO Ashik Ahmed, said in a statement. “They’ve backed some of the most exciting generational software businesses, and we’re delighted to be in such good company.”
“With our new partner investors on board, we will be nearly significantly growing our team globally."
Eric Liaw, general partner at IVP, will join Deputy's board of directors as part of the investment.
“IVP has a long history backing some of the most forward-thinking technology companies, many of which are solving some of the world’s biggest problems, and Deputy certainly fits within that criteria,” Liaw said in a statement.
The funding will be used to launch new products, grow the startup and hire exponentially, the company said. Deputy has about 200 employees currently in the U.S., Australia and the United Kingdom.
“From a humble team of two in a back office in a southern Sydney suburb a decade ago, our team is now 200 strong,” Ahmed said. “With our new partner investors on board, we will be nearly significantly growing our team globally, with the lion’s share of head count pegged for building out Australia’s biggest and best engineering team as we rapidly continue to onboard leading tech talent from around the world.”
In addition to new hires, the company hopes to scale its business to include small and corporate customers alike.
“We now have over 90,000 businesses globally from small coffee shops in Sydney’s suburbs, to behemoths like McDonalds in the U.S.,” Ahmed said. “One of the best things about Deputy is that it can be scaled from small and medium-sized businesses to large enterprise accounts. There’s a huge global demand for our platform, particularly as hourly paid employees account for two-thirds of the global workforce.”
“At Deputy, we’re making the lives of employers easier."
Derek Jones, VP of enterprise solutions at Deputy who is based in Atlanta, said the company is looking at possibly hiring 175 to 200 people in 2019 for engineering, account management and implementation positions. He said the primary growth in Atlanta is catering to mid-market to enterprise customers.
Atlanta serves as a great North American hub for Deputy, Jones said, due to its timezone, global connection, talent, low cost of living and tech community. He said the latest funding was not only a win for Deputy, but a win for the Atlanta tech community.
"The tide rises for everyone in the tech community here," he said. "We talk a lot about making sure Atlanta, not just Deputy, is known as a great place for tech."
Deputy has more than one million users, and works with businesses such as Amazon, Uber, HubSpot and Compass. The company provides software to help employees and employers with time management, scheduling and other workplace operations.
Founded in 2008, Deputy has scheduled 200 million shifts and facilitated more than $30 billion in payroll payments.
“At Deputy, we’re making the lives of employers easier. Taking away some of the administrative strain and giving them untold hours back to focus on what matters: running their businesses, or spending time with their families,” Ahmed said. “We’ve had immense success up until now, but we’re only just getting started.”
