Bambee, an HR offering tailored for small and medium-sized businesses that makes hiring an HR manager affordable for every company, today announced a $15 million dollar series-B round, bringing its total funding to $32 million. The funding will be used to expand Bambee’s service offerings and its ability to reach millions of small businesses. The latest round was led by QED Investors, with participation from Alpha Edison and Mucker Capital.
Founded in 2016 by CEO Allan Jones, Bambee aims to reshape the American employment landscape by providing a dedicated HR Manager to businesses that have never had access to one. Specifically, Bambee aims to be the conduit that reduces the friction-filled relationship that exists at companies due to a lack of HR expertise and strategy.
Most of the 5.6M small businesses in the U.S. do not have a professional HR manager on staff, in most cases because the cost of a full-time professional is unaffordable. This not only leaves businesses exposed to the most common and preventable compliance issues, but also can significantly impact employee morale and retention.
For $99 a month, Bambee provides its clients with their own dedicated HR manager — from creating and implementing the right HR policies, collecting electronic signatures in its app, and navigating the complex regulatory world of compliance. Bambee’s HR Managers lead internal investigations, hires, onboarding, furloughs, and implementation of return-to-work procedures.
Businesses incur an 11% chance each year of having an employment claim filed, and Bambee’s democratized access to best practices and resources is already decreasing those claims for customers. More acutely, in 2020, small businesses are facing a firestorm of issues around diversity and inclusion, and unexpected turbulence caused by Covid-19. (A Bambee study found that 6/10 employees would feel too intimidated to go to their bosses about issues like these, but of those surveyed with a HR representative, seven in 10 have paid them a (virtual) visit.)
Bambee offers a proprietary solution to support the employer and employee, giving small businesses a smarter, more personalized option that solves employment issues with an easy-to-enable solution. Small business HR mistakes negatively impact the business owner and employees, which is why by acting as a liaison for employees to surface issues before they become catastrophic, Bambee reduces the friction that can occur as a result of bottled-up frustrations and decreases the turnover that can follow.
Jones founded the company after spending three years as ZipRecruiter’s Chief Marketing Officer, leading multiple operating teams including growth. “We deeply understand the pain that small businesses face as a result of tedious and complex HR rules and regulations,” Jones said. “Seeing this pain led me to create an easy-to-use, low-cost, transparent solution for small business owners across America. Every business in America, regardless of size, should have a dedicated HR resource to reach out to for HR support and guidance.”
“High-quality HR capabilities are vital to establishing and maintaining operational efficiency, especially for small businesses that face a unique set of challenges,” said QED Partner Matthew Risley. “Bambee’s distinctive offering pairs business expertise with effective technology, which positions the company well for long-term success. We’re thrilled to support the platform’s continued growth as its team of top tech talent works to expand both the platform’s offering and reach.”
“Allan’s pedigree, his deep small business expertise, and his passion to bring relief to an underserved segment in HR influenced our initial investment into Bambee,” Alpha Edison’s Nate Redmond said. “Since that initial investment, our belief in Allan, Bambee, and its gifted leadership team have only strengthened our conviction that Bambee is unlocking latent demand to become the industry leader in the small business HR space.”
10.8% of Bambee’s new clients since March 1 are new businesses launching in a post-Covid environment, indicating America’s best days to run a small business are still ahead. “This year in particular has verified the feeling we’ve had since starting Bambee — HR can no longer just be for the fortune 500 employee,” Jones said. “Our mission is to continue to press forward and aggressively close the gap, so that every employee has access to HR, regardless of the size of company they work for. Our work isn’t done until that mission is complete.”