The new investment will drive the HR-Tech company’s plan to expand its reach across Africa, enhancing workforce productivity, and accelerating business performance through innovative solutions including Embedded Finance offerings, and AI-driven workforce management technology.

The investment comes on the back of an impressive run of five years with SeamlessHR’s eponymous software being used by nearly 2000 businesses to manage HR and Payroll processes for about 300,000 employees across 20 African countries.

Commenting on the announcement, Dr. Emmanuel Okeleji, SeamlessHR’s co-founder and chief executive officer, shared his excitement about the round of funding and the pivotal role SeamlessHR is playing in directly tackling productivity amongst Africa’s workforce and improving the quality of life of Africa’s hardworking people.

“I am really excited about our journey. Over the last 5 years, we have expanded across the continent to become the dominant HR and Payroll Software for medium to large enterprises in Africa. While we continue to accelerate our work to optimize workforce productivity in both the public and private sectors across the continent, much of our attention will also be on empowering hardworking Africans with responsible credit products that will help them use their employment as collateral to enjoy a better life. The impact of recent global disruptions like the pandemic and various conflicts around the world and its resultant effect on economic indices such as inflation, exchange rates, and food supply has unfortunately affected the most vulnerable working Africans, leading to worsening poverty.  

“We are confident that our suite of embedded finance products will contribute to alleviating these problems at scale for our people so that working Africans like people in other parts of the world will be able to leverage responsible credit to gain better access to basic life needs like shelter, mobility, food, and education. And who better to walk this road with than the good folks at the Gates Foundation and Helios and our very supportive earlier investors, who share our passion for the continent.

Fope Adelowo, managing partner at Helios Digital Ventures, commented:

“We believe technology is the key to unlocking Africa’s immense potential as a global economic force. SeamlessHR is not only pioneering the digitisation of workforce management but also empowering businesses and employees with transformative solutions such as embedded finance. By providing salary assurance and enhanced wage access, they are breaking down barriers to financial inclusion across the continent. We are pleased to partner with SeamlessHR on this exciting journey and look forward to accelerating their impact across Africa in its next phase of growth.”

Uche Amaonwu, Nigeria country director of the Gates Foundation, added: “The Gates Foundation is excited about the potential for SeamlessHR to enable access to critical financial services for millions of hard-working, formally employed Africans. This is particularly relevant in Nigeria for workers to potentially mitigate the increasing cost of living.

This announcement comes months after SeamlessHR announced the launch of new embedded finance products that enable employers and employees access critical financing solutions, including payroll financing, to fuel their growth and business performance.

The funding round led by TLcom Capital, also received major contributions from global VC firm, Capria Ventures, existing investors, Lateral Frontier Ventures, Enza Capital, and Ingressive Capital, as well as several strategic private investors.

This new capital will be used to further strengthen SeamlessHR’s position as Africa’s leading cloud HR and payroll platform. It will provide means to grow the team, fuelling expansion across the continent to Southern and East Africa, with South Africa and Kenya as operation hubs respectively. 

The company will also add new product functionalities around artificial intelligence and HR data analytics. Leveraging its rich HR and Payroll data, SeamlessHR will also be launching new embedded finance products that will improve the lives of working people in Africa.

The endorsements of TLcom and Capria Ventures and the follow-on investments by Lateral Frontier Ventures, Enza Capital, and Ingressive Capital is significant for SeamlessHR, as it reflects the huge market opportunity, and the company’s potential to remain the leading HR SaaS company in the continent.

“Thanks to our customers, we have become the leading cloud HR and Payroll SaaS in Africa in such a short time. But this is only the beginning. We are fanatical about customer success and this funding will enable us to invest in the continuous optimization of customer experience across all touchpoints, adding new features and functionalities to empower enterprises as they continue their incredible growth,” says Dr Emmanuel Okeleji, SeamlessHR’s co-founder and CEO.

Founded in 2018 by Emmanuel Okeleji and Deji Lana, SeamlessHR deploys world-class cloud technology solutions to manage and streamline HR data and workflow end to end. Their solution automates HR processes and is the only enterprise-grade HR/Payroll SaaS designed in Africa to meet African enterprises’ demanding requirements to manage the entire HR lifecycle from hire to retire. 

SeamlessHR’s product suite includes a Core HR Management system, Performance and Competency Management, HR Analytics, Leave Management, Payroll Management, and Recruitment Management.

The company caters to hundreds of companies, and its client base cuts across multiple sectors in Africa, including renowned brands like PwC, Flutterwave, Sterling Bank, TGI Group, Lagos Business School, AXA, and Chapel Hill Denham. SeamlessHR’s cloud platform equips these clients and their people with the cutting-edge tools required to remain ahead of the rapidly changing HR management curve.

Andreata Muforo, partner at TLcom Capital, says “Over the last few years, SeamlessHR has consistently demonstrated its ability to deliver a robust HR and payroll platform for Africa’s medium and large businesses. The strong execution shown by Emmanuel and his team is a vital ingredient required to build a successful business and as they expand their products to include embedded finance and launch their solutions to new markets, we’re proud to partner alongside them and strengthen their push to unlock more value within Africa’s B2B space. At TLcom, we believe SeamlessHR can be the preferred platform for businesses to digitize workplaces and support their personnel.”

As e-connectivity and bandwidth capacity increase on the continent, there is a large appetite for efficient cloud computing solutions, and businesses are increasingly able to leverage cloud technologies to drive business transformation. 

The continent’s growing cloud computing industry reflects this opportunity – cloud computing in the Middle East and Africa is expected to grow from its current estimated market size of $14.2billion in 2021 to $31.4billion in 2026. SeamlessHR’s mission is to help African businesses leverage the continent’s greatest asset – its abundant human capital – with their cloud HR & Payroll software.

Will Poole, managing partner at Capria, said “SeamlessHR is addressing the needs of African enterprises in ways that the global giants can’t compete with by building customer-centric SaaS designed from the ground-up to address complexity unique to the continent”. 

He added, “Now that they’ve proven they can address the needs of disparate countries across Africa, we are confident that they will be the solution provider of choice to support their customers that are expanding globally.”

The company understands its position as a catalyst for business growth on the continent and remains committed to helping companies optimize their human capital through relentless innovation.