💰 March 2025: European HRTech Investment Update

The first quarter of 2025 already came to a close and March again brought in several larger deals. At the beginning of the year, it's been discussed a lot amongst advisors and analysts that M&A and transactions in the HR Tech market are expected to increase this year and the activities in Q1 as well as incoming interest from buyers in HRTech remain high.

In March, we see the consolidation continue - still often based on the following value creation hypotheses:

HR suite vendors are adding point solutions to their portfolio
Talent acquisition vendors see faster changes with well-funded GenAI solutions entering the market and are broadening their proposition which also increases overall consolidation in this market
The payroll outsourcing and software continue with their consolidation with some payroll-focused vendors entering broader HR Tech offerings
Previously specialized employee benefits vendors broaden their portfolio offerings and are continuing to push for a multi-benefit platform play
Selected consolidation between scale-ups and start-ups continues with some start-ups struggling with standalone GTM in more challenging economic environments

Based on these developments, there are some interesting European and also some global #HRTech deals recorded. Here is the summary:

𝐇𝐑𝐓𝐞𝐜𝐡 𝐓𝐫𝐚𝐧𝐬𝐚𝐜𝐭𝐢𝐨𝐧𝐬:

📝 Hg (UK) acquired Permira's (UK) minority stake in P&I Personal & Informatik AG (DE), a leading provider of cloud-based HR solutions with the transaction valuing P&I at €5.5B (up from around €400M in 2013): https://www.permira.com/news-and-insights/announcements/hr-software-leader-pi-secures-further-backing-from-hg-in-55-billion-transaction

📝 HRworks GmbH (DE) backed by Maguar Capital (DE) acquired Vispato (DE), leading German whistleblowing software solution. This marks the third addition after the acquisition of DriversCheck GmbH and Bonrepublic. Through this acquisition, HR WORKS expands its offering in the rapidly growing market for compliance solutions as part of its integrated HR suite: https://maguar.com/2025/04/02/hr-works-a-portfolio-company-of-maguar-capital-enhances-its-hr-suite-by-acquiring-vispato-a-leading-german-whistleblowing-software-solution/

📝 Wellhub (US) acquired Urban Sports Club (DE), a European provider of corporate employee benefit programs and consumer wellness solutions. By integrating Wellhub’s extensive health, sport, and wellness offerings in the US, LATAM, and Europe with Urban Sports Club’s well-established European presence the group is expanding its European presence. Wellness partners including gyms, studios, and digital apps will thus be able to connect with a larger audience of corporate clients and their employees: https://wellhub.com/en-us/blog/press-releases/wellhub-and-urban-sports-club-join-forces/

📝 Timegrip (DK) backed by Main Capital Partners acquired Software4You Planungssysteme GmbH (DE), a provider of HR controlling and personnel cost planning software. The acquisition marks the third step in Timegrip’s buy-and-build strategy. With this acquisition, the workforce management platform expands its portfolio further besides its employee scheduling, time and attendance, and HR administration capabilities: https://main.nl/press-release/timegrip-strengthens-its-position-in-the-workforce-management-wfm-software-market-through-the-acquisition-of-software4you/

📝 Cezanne HR (UK) backed by NorthEdge acquired Occupop (IE), a Dublin-based recruitment technology business with a comprehensive applicant tracking system. The acquisition is Cezanne’s first strategic move since receiving investment from NorthEdge in March 2023 and forms a key part of the company’s growth plan to provide best-in-class HR and Payroll solutions for its customer base across the UK and internationally: https://cezannehr.com/news/cezanne-makes-first-major-acquisition-with-dublin-based-recruitment-tech-leaders-occupop/

📝 Grupa Pracuj (PL) acquired a majority stake in Kadromierz (PL), a provider of workforce time management. Poland-based Grupa Pracuj has acquired a 65.5% stake in Kadromierz for ~$5.2M. Besides the time management vendor the group also operates the largest Polish recruitment service pracuj.pl, the Ukrainian recruitment service – robot.ua, and recruitment management systems: rRecruiter.pl and softgarden: https://aimgroup.com/2025/03/06/grupa-pracuj-acquires-majority-stake-in-kadromierz/

📝 Zest (FR) and Supermood (FR), a portfolio companies of Educapital, announced a merger. Supermood brings its expertise with enterprise accounts from long-standing clients such as Fnac-Darty, BPCE, and Boulanger while ZestMeUp enriches the alliance with its engagement technology suite covering the employee journey from listening to performance management. Following this merger, ZestMeUp is now targeting an international expansion: https://www.supermood.com/fr-fr/blog/post/news/zest-et-supermood-sassocient

📝 MINDSTONE (FR), a private equity investment firm, acquired crème de la crème (FR), a recruitment platform. CdC generated revenues of €40m in 2024 and forecasts €50m for 2025. CdC and its new shareholder plan a buy-and-build with 1-2 acquisitions a year: https://www.maddyness.com/2025/03/03/creme-de-la-creme-sappuie-sur-mindstone-pour-devenir-le-adecco-de-demain/

There were also some deals happening rather in the HR services, consulting & outsourcing space (less HR Tech) that are still notable as oftentimes partners in the ecosystem and also moving closer together through tech:

📝 Alixio Group (FR) backed by Ardian acquired von Rundstedt Switzerland (CH) and OTP Organisation & Training Partners AG (CH) thus expanding its portfolio and market access at the same time. This creates a group with four business units in Switzerland: Outplacement (ex von Rundstedt), Assessment/ Coaching/ New placement/ Labor Market Measures (ex OTP Group) as well as the internationally established interim management (X-PM) and Consulting Services of Alixio Consulting. Alixio plans further European expansion: https://www.organisator.ch/de/management/2025-03-12/mit-alixio-group-zum-fuehrenden-hr-dienstleister-der-schweiz/

📝 The Kingdom Group Limited (UK) acquired People First Recruitment (UK), a company who specialise in providing temporary and permanent recruitment solutions across the Industrial & Manufacturing, Food and Horticultural, Technical & Engineering, and Health & Social Care sectors. The acquired business will be rebranded as Kingdom People: https://www.kingdom.co.uk/blog/the-kingdom-group-completes-the-acquisition-of-first-people-recruitment-ltd-1

🌎 Globally the most notable and also discussed HRTech deals in March include:

📝 Deel (US) acquired Safeguard Global (US) payroll division, one of the key providers of global payroll solutions. The company serves 140+ markets, processes more than 2.4M+ payslips per year, and boasts an 80+% first-time approval in each payroll cycle. They specialize in serving global customers. Safeguard Global’s payroll team has hundreds of experts with decades of global payroll and compliance knowledge, particularly when working with enterprise businesses. What leaves some of the payroll experts puzzled is why are strongly software focused vendor now enters the complex enterprise payroll services business: https://www.deel.com/blog/deel-acquires-safeguard-global-payroll-division/

📝 Employ (US) backed by K1 Investment Management acquired Pillar (US), a transformative AI interview intelligence platform. Employ doesn't see AI capabilities in this space as a bolt-on but believe it's critical to have greater control of natively embedded capabilities - which may be a signal for more consolidation in this space going forward as well: https://www.employinc.com/blog/employ-pillar-supercharged-ai-to-strengthen-human-connection/

ServiceNow (US) acquired Moveworks (US), a business process automation company for $2.85 billion in cash and stock.

Other transactions included JobGet's (US) acquisition of Seasoned (US) and Energage's acquisition of TalentQuest - An Energage Company (US).

Congrats to all of those involved in these deals and all the best for the next iteration of the journey!

Let me know if I overlooked something in the comments below! ⬇

💰 March 2025: European HRTech Investment Update - M&A 🚀

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