A number of years in the past, Richard Schrems was working as a human sources guide in Riyadh, and at one level sought to implement a tech-solution for his shoppers to assist them higher their enormous groups, however couldn’t discover a localized resolution.
Schrems instructed TechCrunch he wanted a system that was employee-focused, however discovered most of the HR software program he interacted with to be “very complex”, with “a lot of features, a lot of functionalities focused on making life easier for HR managers”, however with little regard for ease of use by staff. “This makes adoption hard,” he mentioned.
His findings weren’t distinctive to him as a current examine confirmed an growing dissatisfaction with HR tech suppliers — half of the respondents mentioned they deliberate to vary their techniques for brand new applied sciences that provide higher consumer expertise and take distant working into consideration.
Driven to bridge the hole, in 2019, Schrems (CEO) teamed up with Christoph Czichna (COO) and Dragan Nikolic (CPO), to launch Palm.hr, primarily based out of Riyadh and whose shoppers embrace Hala, Thmanyah, the Saudi Venture Capital Company, Mozn, Jeeny, Rabbit. Schrems says the HR-tech startup has skilled nice growth since launch, doubling its annual recurring income (ARR) each six months.
Following this growth, it’s planning on increasing to Egypt and the UAE, whereas doubling down on Saudi Arabia, in opposition to the backdrop of $5 million pre-Series A funding it has raised, in a spherical led by Europe-based VC Speedinvest, which marked its debut into Saudi Arabia, and RAED Ventures, with participation from MENA targeted VC agency Wamda Capital.
“We are on a mission to transform HR tech and employee experience across the Middle East and North Africa, and ideally beyond…by creating a mobile first experience,” mentioned Schrems.
Philip Specht, accomplice, Speedinvest mentioned in a press release: “As EU-based investors, we have seen how companies such as Personio and Factorial are creating billion dollar outcomes in the HR space. With a similar, but localized approach, we believe that Palm.hr is poised to become the leading player in the MENA region, and the wider Arab world. The company has an outstanding team, a superior value proposition in terms of features, integrations and UX, and strong customer love. We are thrilled to back Palm.hr, which reflects our excitement about the wider start-up ecosystem in the MENA.”
Palm.hr automates payrolls, tracks leaves and absences, and follows on workers efficiency, along with worker self-service options that make inside communication between workers simple. It additionally automates different workflow features associated to HR together with on or off-boarding of staff, and is configurable throughout borders, making it simple for it to match native labor legal guidelines, and worker rules in several markets.
For occasion, in Saudi Arabia, Palm.hr additionally has built-in with authorities providers akin to Mudad for digital payroll and compliance, mandated by the nation’s ministry of labor; the General Organization for Social Insurance (GOSI), and Muqeem, the international worker’s information platform.
“With Palm.hr, you can fully process your payroll, you can actually do the payments because we are integrated with the government payroll system; apply for visas because we are integrated with the government visa system, and update people’s social insurance because we’re integrated with the social insurance system,” mentioned Schrems.
The firm can be set so as to add new options and merchandise that can, for example, make it potential for workers to simply entry loans, asset-financing, and insurance coverage merchandise.
“We want to merge HR-tech with fintech and insurtech…for employees to be able to do everything like purchase or rent assets, sign up to health or travel insurance, within our solution. We want to make Palm.hr part of employees’ daily lives,” mentioned Schrems.
As it embarks on enlargement and extra product improvement, Palm.hr hopes to seize a large portion of the worldwide HR tech market, which is envisaged to develop at 9.08% CAGR to achieve $53.3 billion by 2028.
…. to be continued
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