Factorial, a Barcelona-based HR technology startup for SMEs, has closed a Series B financing round with the US investment fund Tiger Global Management for 80 million dollars (67.3 million euros). Former investors in the company, such as Creandym, Point Nine Capital, Columbia Lake Partners, K Fund, and CRV ---one of the most renowned funds in Silicon Valley which, with this operation, signs its first investment in a Spanish company---, also participated in the round, increasing the financing obtained to 100 million dollars (84 million euros). Factorial will use the money to finance its international expansion project, with a focus on the Latin American market ---where it recently began operating---, to hire more people, and to develop its product.
Factorial now has a portfolio of 75,000 clients in 65 countries. Its most important markets are Spain, France, and Latin America. On average, the companies they work with have 100 employees, although they also boast big names like KFC or Booking. In the immediate future, Factorial plans to open offices in Brazil and the United States. Currently, the company has a team of 257 employees, a figure it intends to double in the coming months.
The investment fund Tiger Global Management specializes in the Internet, software, consumer, and financial technology industries. It is an expert in the public market, but lately it has been investing in private companies that are in the development phase and are expected to go public in the coming years. Tiger's bet on Factorial only demonstrates the future of the Catalan company, which today ---five years after its birth in Barcelona--- has closed the round with a valuation of 530 million dollars (446 million euros), according to Techcrunch. The entrepreneurs who founded it are Jordi Romero (CEO), Pau Ramon (CTO, Chief Technology Officer), and Bernat Farrero (CRO, Chief Revenue Officer).
"The Human Resources software market represents a very big opportunity in Europe and Factorial is incredibly well positioned to take advantage of it," says John Curtius, partner at Tiger Global. The operation comes just over a year after having closed a Series A round of 15 million euros. In addition, this latest capital injection comes at a time of boom for the Barcelona startup. In the last 18 months, they explain, they have grown a lot as a consequence of the impact that the coronavirus has generated on SMEs around the world. The pandemic forced companies to better manage human resources and that translated into an increase in demand for Factorial's software, which tripled its sales.
The key to its success is that they have managed to create a space in which to execute a large part of the operations related to a company's HR: in a single platform, incorporations are processed, the workforce is managed, calendars and free time are combined, schedules are controlled, salaries and payrolls are administered, internal communication is managed, and much more. According to the founders, Factorial significantly streamlines a company's human resources management: "the idea is to enable SMEs to have access to information they normally don't have, so they can make data-driven decisions, in the same way that large companies do."