Employment Hero buys Aussie firm ‘to enable our mission to create the world’s smartest, most accurate AI for payroll’

It cannot be overstated how important getting payroll right is to businesses, and their long-term success.

To help organizations, and specifically HR teams, succeed at payroll, lots of tech solutions have cropped up on the market. In fact, in 2023, the payroll services market was worth $99 billion – and it is expected to reach $133 billion by 2028.

It, therefore, makes sense that big providers are acquiring startups to bolster and innovate their payroll offerings. In 2024 alone, HiBob has bought payroll automation platform Pento and Deel purchased global payroll giant PaySpace – and now Employment Hero has joined them.

The global HR and employee experience giant, which services 300,000 global businesses (primarily small and medium sized), has acquired Employment Innovations, a leading HR and payroll provider in Australia.

This is a strategic merger, and aims to transform Employment Hero into a one-stop-shop where HR and finance leaders have full visibility of an AI-powered, automated, compliant payroll process.

Writing on LinkedIn, Employment Hero’s CEO Ben Thompson shared:

The future of payroll is automation

Employment Innovations is Employment Hero’s second acquisition in ten years – it’s first was KeyPay in 2022 – and comes within a year of the HR tech unicorn closing a $263 million Series F that enabled its global expansion.

Talking exclusively to UNLEASH, Employment Hero’s UK managing director Kevin Fitzgerald adds: “This acquisition enables us to fulfil our mission to create the world’s smartest, most accurate AI for payroll.

Employment Innovations are one of the best managed payroll providers in the world, and Employment Hero wants to provide the most advanced payroll service in the world – so this acquisition was a no brainer.”

In terms of what comes next for Employment Hero (with the addition of Employment Innovations), Fitzgerald says: This acquisition is a strategic move towards realizing our mission of transitioning to a fully automated AI-powered employment infrastructure”.

Employment Hero wants to move away from being only a HRIS; “Employment Hero has evolved into a true lifecycle product – we are digitizing every aspect of employment for both sides of the market (employers/employees),” adds Fitzgerald.

“Forget SaaS, we’re creating a new software category: EMPaaS – Employment as a Service,” he concludes.