The innovative SMB team management platform prepares for product expansion in quest to make work easier for small businesses and hourly workers.
SAN FRANCISCO – Homebase, the all-in-one SaaS platform that helps more than 100,000 small businesses manage hourly teams, announced today its $71 million Series C funding round to expand its products and services. With $109m in total funding to date, Homebase is also launching new innovative tools for HR and payroll that broaden its offering for small business owners and accelerate the company’s growth and expansion. This funding round was led by new investor, GGV Capital, and includes existing investors Bain Capital Ventures, Baseline Ventures, Bedrock Capital, Cowboy Ventures, and Khosla Ventures, and additional investor PLUS Capital. The venture firms are joined in this round by a notable group of individual investors including Kat Cole, the former President and COO of Focus Brands, Jocelyn Mangan, Board Member at Papa Johns and Chownow and former COO of Snag, Mike Dinsdale, the former CFO of Gusto, Rachel Carlson, the founder of Guild Education, actor and author Matthew McConaughey, athletes Jrue and Lauren Holiday, and others.
Launched out of a desire to innovate how local businesses manage their hourly teams, Homebase is enabling owners and employees alike to spend less time on busywork and more time on getting work done and growing their businesses. Roughly half of the 5 million small businesses in the United States are spending as much as 30 hours every month doing time-consuming—yet necessary—tasks, like payroll, scheduling, and administrative paperwork. These businesses are not benefiting from traditional SMB software, because it is not designed for them. Hourly work is uniquely difficult because it comes with more regulations and requires technology for workers who do not often work on computers. Homebase is making it easier than ever to overcome these challenges.
The latest funding round coincides with Homebase’s evolution beyond a time tracking, scheduling, and hiring provider, expanding its products to become the all-in-one platform uniquely designed for these two underserved segments of small business owners and hourly employees.
“I started Homebase to make life easier for my family members and friends in local businesses, who weren’t being helped by technology. Everything from their hiring to their scheduling was stuck offline. Like millions of other restaurants, retailers, cleaners, bars, doggy daycares, and other incredible local businesses, they were forced to choose between paper, or solutions that weren’t designed for them,” said John Waldmann, Founder and CEO of Homebase. “Now, more than ever, they deserve better. We are offering the first comprehensive platform for team operations, payroll, and HR built specifically for Main Street businesses and hourly work. This funding allows us to provide even more tools and solutions to make work easier for them.”
Payroll and HR Services Added to Homebase Platform
Homebase is also adding two new products to its existing suite of time and attendance, team communication, hiring, and HR services: Payroll processing and pay advances. Payroll is now available to customers in 27 states, with the rest of the U.S. and Canada coming soon. Because Homebase offers timesheets and payroll on the same platform, business owners can skip the manual process of transferring hours and wage data from their time tracking system into their payroll system, saving them time and reducing the risk of mistakes.
Homebase’s new pay advances feature enables employees working for Homebase customers to access some of their wages before payday in order to handle unexpected expenses without payday loans or overdraft fees. This type of benefit has gained popularity with large companies, and now small businesses can offer the same perk to their teams, with zero cost or liability to the employer.
“Small businesses are the lifeblood of the American economy, with more than 60% of Americans employed by one of our 30 million small businesses. In a post-pandemic world, technology has never been more important to businesses of all sizes, including SMBs,” said Jeff Richards, Managing Partner at GGV Capital and new Homebase board member. “The team at Homebase has worked tirelessly for years to bring technology to SMBs in a way that helps drive increased profitability, better hiring and growth. We’re thrilled to see Homebase playing such an important role in America’s small business recovery, and thrilled to be part of the mission going forward.”
“Hard working people who work in and run restaurants and local businesses are important to all of us”, said Matthew McConaughey, a new Homebase investor. “They play an important role in giving our cities a sense of livelihood, identity, and community. This is why I’ve invested in Homebase. Homebase brings small business operations into the modern age and helps folks across the country not only continue to work harder, but work smarter.
Since launching in 2015, Homebase has seen impressive growth and now serves more than 100,000 businesses and more than 1 million employees. The company has also expanded beyond its San Francisco and Houston offices, launching additional hubs in Atlanta, Austin, Denver, and Toronto.
About Homebase:
Our mission is to make hourly work easier for local businesses and their employees. Homebase currently serves more than 100,000 small (but mighty) businesses with everything they need to manage their hourly teams: employee scheduling, time clocks, payroll, team communication, hiring, onboarding, and compliance. Just don’t call us “Human Capital Management.” We’re tools built for the busiest businesses, so owners and employees can spend less time on bullsh*t and paperwork and more time on what matters. For more information, please visit http://www.joinhomebase.com.
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