Daniel Saks
Chief Executive Officer
The HR tech industry is experiencing unprecedented growth, with over $3 billion raised in just the first half of 2025—60% more than the same period in 2024. This surge reflects how AI is transforming human resources, from talent acquisition to payroll, benefits, and employee experience. For go-to-market teams targeting these innovative HR tech companies, understanding which platforms are leading this transformation is crucial. Agentic AI platforms like Landbase now enable sales and marketing teams to identify and qualify these fast-growing HR tech companies in seconds using natural-language prompts like "HR tech startups that raised Series B or later funding in 2024 or 2025."
Rippling unifies HR, IT, and Finance operations in a single platform, enabling companies to manage employees, devices, apps, payroll, and expenses from one system. Its 90-second employee onboarding automates setup across all systems, while AI-powered workforce automation connects 500+ integrated applications.
Rippling is the only platform truly combining HR, IT, and Finance in a unified system, eliminating data silos across departments. Its industry-leading valuation and massive funding round signal unprecedented market confidence in all-in-one workforce platforms.
Valuation: $16.8 billion | Founded: 2016
Recent Funding: $450 million Series G (May 2025)
Deel provides a comprehensive global payroll and HR platform that enables companies to hire and manage contractors and employees in 120+ countries. Its AI-powered tools work with fully owned payroll infrastructure to handle compliance, benefits, and payments across borders.
Deel dominates global workforce management, serving companies expanding internationally with comprehensive compliance and payment solutions. Its profitability combined with rapid growth makes it a rare unicorn achieving both scale and sustainable economics.
Valuation: $7.3B | Founded: 2019
Recent Funding: $300 million Series E (October 2025)
Gusto provides payroll, benefits, and HR tools specifically designed for small businesses, serving 6% of all U.S. employers. Its AI assistant "Gus," launched in 2024, answers payroll compliance questions, while its health insurance offering ensures compliance across all 50 states.
Gusto dominates the massive SMB market with AI-powered compliance assistance that democratizes sophisticated HR capabilities for small businesses. The platform's 2024 launch of AI assistant "Gus" addresses complex payroll questions, setting new standards for SMB-focused HR tech.
Valuation: $10.5B| Founded: 2012
Recent Funding: Undisclosed Series E (May 2022)
Juicebox leverages AI agents to autonomously source candidates from 600 million+ profiles, transforming talent acquisition for data-driven recruiting teams. Its platform integrates deeply with major ATS platforms like Greenhouse, Lever, and Ashby, enabling recruiters to find candidates using natural language queries.
Juicebox powers hiring for leading AI companies like Ramp and Perplexity, operating in the competitive AI talent war. Its AI-native approach to recruiting represents the future of talent acquisition, using autonomous agents instead of traditional search methods.
Valuation: $180M | Founded: 2023
Recent Funding: $30M Series A (September 2025)
Findem uses LLM-powered technology to aggregate talent data from 100,000+ sources, going beyond LinkedIn to provide comprehensive talent intelligence. Its copilot for talent sourcing enables recruiters to use natural language queries like "Show me CFOs at PE-backed companies that recently expanded" to find candidates.
Findem was first to use LLMs for complex talent queries, setting new standards for AI in recruiting. The platform addresses complex hiring criteria that traditional ATS systems cannot handle, providing talent intelligence beyond what LinkedIn offers.
Recent Funding: $51M Series C (October 2025)
Cleo provides comprehensive caregiver support with a focus on cancer care, addressing one of the most significant healthcare cost drivers for employers. Its Cancer Care product, launched in 2024, provides end-to-end support for employees fighting cancer, saving an average of $2,888 per family.
Cleo addresses critical timing with 2 million Americans diagnosed with cancer in 2024 (highest ever), making cancer the #1 healthcare cost driver for 50% of employers. The company's specialized focus on cancer care represents a unique niche in benefits administration with measurable ROI.
Valuation: $55.7M | Founded: 2016
Recent Funding: $80M Series C (April 2022)
Warp is the first truly "AI-native" HR and payroll platform that runs autonomously with minimal human intervention. Its AI agents automatically open state tax accounts, file forms, and resolve notices without requiring manual navigation of .gov websites.
Warp is specifically designed for fast-growing startups that need sophisticated HR capabilities without dedicated HR teams. Backed by Sound Ventures (Ashton Kutcher), Drew Houston & Arash Ferdowsi (Dropbox), the platform represents the future of autonomous HR operations.
Recent Funding: $50M Series B (June 2023)
RemoFirst provides Employer of Record (EOR) services in 100+ countries along with its innovative RemoVisa service for work permits in 85+ countries, launched in 2024. The platform handles the entire visa application process with local law compliance, making it easier for companies to hire globally.
RemoFirst addresses critical international expansion challenges with its unique RemoVisa service for work permits across 85+ countries. Prestigious clients like the World Health Organization and University of Cambridge validate the platform's enterprise-grade capabilities.
Recent Funding: $25M Series A (March 2024)
Ashby provides an all-in-one recruiting platform with powerful analytics and reporting capabilities, designed for data-driven recruiting teams. The platform competes directly with Greenhouse and Lever but differentiates through its advanced analytics features that help teams optimize their hiring processes.
Ashby's analytics-focused approach appeals to sophisticated recruiting teams that prioritize data over traditional ATS features. The platform's July 2025 Series D funding signals major market validation for analytics-first recruiting solutions.
Recent Funding: $50M Series D (July 2025)
HiBob provides a modern HRIS platform specifically designed for mid-size and multinational companies, addressing the gap between SMB-focused platforms and enterprise-heavy solutions like Workday. The platform supports global teams with features that connect corporate offices with distributed locations through newsfeeds and recognition tools.
HiBob fills the critical gap between SMB-focused platforms and enterprise-heavy solutions, serving mid-market companies with 200-2,000 employees. The platform's consecutive triple-digit year-over-year growth demonstrates strong product-market fit in this underserved segment.
Valuation: 2.7B | Founded: 2015
Recent Funding: $150M Series D
ZipRecruiter operates as a job board and recruiting platform that uses AI to match qualified candidates to preselected interview times. Its ZipIntro AI tool, launched in 2024, enables instant candidate-employer video connections, fast-tracking face-to-face interactions.
ZipRecruiter addresses the highly competitive 2024 job market, which has seen a 10-20% increase in applicant competition. The platform's public company status and mass-market reach provide stability and scale in the recruiting technology landscape.
Valuation: 449.22M | Founded: 2010
Recent Funding: $156M Series B (October 2018)
The rapid growth of these 11 HR tech companies demonstrates how AI is fundamentally reshaping human resources. From AI-native platforms like Warp and Juicebox to AI-enhanced features in established platforms like Gusto's "Gus" assistant, the integration of artificial intelligence has become table stakes in HR technology.
For go-to-market teams looking to engage with these innovative companies, traditional prospecting methods fall short. The complexity of the HR tech landscape, combined with the rapid pace of innovation, requires more sophisticated targeting approaches.
This is where agentic AI platforms like Landbase provide critical advantages. By leveraging natural-language targeting, GTM teams can identify these fast-growing HR tech companies based on specific criteria:
Landbase's GTM-2 Omni model, trained on billions of data points from 50M+ B2B campaigns, can interpret these natural-language queries and return AI-qualified audiences ready for immediate activation. With access to 300M+ contacts and 24M+ companies across 1,500+ unique signals, Landbase enables precise targeting of these fast-growing HR tech innovators.
This list was compiled using a rigorous methodology that analyzed:
All data points were verified through multiple sources including Y Combinator profiles, company announcements, Fast Company rankings, and industry reports, ensuring the most current and accurate information for 2025.
Fastest-growing HR tech companies demonstrate significant growth through recent funding rounds of $10M+ in 2024-2025, substantial ARR growth of 20%+ year-over-year, or major customer acquisition exceeding 500+ companies. These companies are transforming HR functions through AI integration, specialized solutions addressing critical pain points, or comprehensive platform approaches that unify multiple HR workflows. Market recognition through industry awards like Fast Company's Most Innovative HR Companies and validation from top-tier investors like Sequoia Capital, Andreessen Horowitz, and Alkeon Capital further distinguish these leaders from competitors.
AI has doubled in adoption within HR functions, with 43% of organizations now using AI compared to 26% in 2024, accelerating the growth of AI-native platforms. AI contributes to HR tech growth by enabling autonomous operations like Warp's self-running payroll platform, advanced talent sourcing through Juicebox and Findem's LLM-powered candidate matching, and intelligent compliance assistance via Gusto's "Gus" chatbot. Predictive analytics improve hiring outcomes, employee experience, and operational efficiency, while AI agents automate previously manual tasks like state tax account setup, form filing, and time-off approvals. This transformation has driven over $3 billion in H1 2025 funding, validating AI as the primary growth driver in modern HR technology.
HR tech startups in our list span from Series A rounds of $24M-$30M (RemoFirst and Juicebox) to massive Series G rounds like Rippling's $450M at a $16.8B valuation. Early-stage companies typically raise $10M-$50M in Series A and B rounds to validate product-market fit and scale initial operations, while growth-stage Series C-E rounds of $50M-$300M fund market expansion, international growth, and platform development. Later-stage companies like Deel have raised $679M total funding, while public companies like ZipRecruiter, Paycom, and Gusto (~$10B valuation) demonstrate the potential for massive scale. The industry raised $3 billion+ in H1 2025 alone, showing strong investor confidence across all stages from seed to pre-IPO.
Businesses can leverage these insights by benchmarking their current HR tech stack against these innovative leaders to identify gaps in automation, AI capabilities, or specialized solutions like global hiring support or cancer care benefits. Understanding which HR functions receive the most innovation and investment helps prioritize technology upgrades that deliver measurable ROI, such as Cleo's $158,059 projected savings for 10,000-employee companies or Paycom's 200-hour time savings. Companies can evaluate partnership opportunities with these platforms based on their growth stage, specialization, and customer profiles. For B2B vendors targeting HR tech companies, these growth patterns inform effective go-to-market strategies by revealing which segments are attracting capital, which pain points drive adoption, and which customer profiles represent ideal prospects.
Using platforms like Landbase, businesses can identify these fast-growing HR tech companies through natural-language targeting with prompts like "HR tech startups that raised funding in 2024 or 2025" or "AI-powered recruiting platforms with Series B+ funding." Landbase's GTM-2 Omni model processes these queries against 300M+ contacts and 24M+ companies to generate AI-qualified audiences ready for immediate activation. With access to 1,500+ unique signals including funding rounds, hiring activity, technology stack changes, and growth metrics, teams can precisely target companies based on specific criteria like specialization (global payroll vs. recruiting), customer segment (SMB vs. enterprise), or innovation approach (AI-native vs. AI-enhanced). This natural-language approach eliminates manual research and enables sales and marketing teams to identify ideal prospects in seconds rather than weeks.
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