Jet HR, a start-up founded by Marco Ogliengo and Francesco Scalambrino to cut red tape related to work and employee management, announces that it has closed a EUR 12 million seed round, bringing its total funding to EUR 16.7 million.
In addition to the speed of execution and the amount, the transaction is also characterised by the quality of the investors. Acting as lead investor is the international venture capital company Picus Capital, which, on the strength of its experience as an investor in other companies operating in the same segment, brings Jet HR both capital and know-how and networking.
Robin Godenrath, founding partner and managing director of Picus Capital, says in a note: “We are thrilled to support Marco, Francesco and the entire Jet HR team in their mission to revolutionise the payroll landscape in Italy. Italy’s complex payroll regulations, well-established networks of consultants and outdated ways of interacting with clients form the ideal basis for Jet HR’s innovative and digital approach. In particular, we are impressed by the rapid iteration of the product and the exceptional business drive demonstrated by the team from the start. We see tremendous potential in AI-driven automation to transform the payroll market in Italy, which is worth over four billion euros, given the current reliance on highly service-oriented solutions. We are excited to continue supporting Jet HR as a pioneer of AI-driven payroll solutions.”
Existing investors, Exor Ventures, and Italian Founders Fund (IFF), the first Italian VC fund created to bring the experience of established founders in digital to the companies of tomorrow and which recently appointed Irene Mingozzi, who returned to Italy after a decade of experience in Silicon Valley, as principal of the fund, are participating in the round by increasing their share. Also investing further are names relevant to the industry and Jet HR’s objective: such as Diego Piacentini, an important career in bigtech and former Commissioner for the Digital Agenda in Italy; David Clarke, former CTO of the world’s largest HR company, Workday; Tony Jamous, founder of Oyster HR (a unicorn offering payroll services); and Felix Blossier, founder of the French accounting unicorn Pennylane. These names complete the large roster of the most successful digital entrepreneurs in Italy, who entered directly or through IFF, and some of the biggest industrial families such as Benetton, Berlusconi and Moratti who entered with their own investment vehicles and gathered around Jet HR in the pre-seed round.
Lorenzo Franzi, who leads the activities of Italian Founders Fund says: “Jet HR is already the perfect example of the kind of value IFF wants to bring to the country’s digital and innovation ecosystem. By funding the talent and commitment of a new generation of excellence, we also promote the attraction of capital and experience from abroad along with the capital of Italian founders”.
Jet HR responds to companies’ frustration with bureaucracy by offering a technology platform accompanied by labour consultants. Not only does it automate payroll (the processing of payroll, recruitment and the like), but it also allows for the rapid handling of subsequent administrative tasks. The hundreds of satisfied customers, the sudden clarity of personnel costs, the simplicity of hiring processes, the elimination of paper from expense reports and contracts, and the savings due to the automatic application of tax deductions, are the main elements behind the model that convinced so many innovators to invest even in the pre-seed round record of June 2023, which immediately mapped out the growth potential of the project.
The market’s strong need for an efficient answer to the many complexities of employee management is reflected in the results achieved by Jet HR in just 12 months of operation: over 300 client companies including SMEs and start-ups up to multinational, even listed, companies such as HelloFresh or Octopus Energy.
The capital increase will support the growth of the workforce, which now numbers 70 employees, as well as for the development of the platform, which, moreover, immediately positioned itself in the 10% of the world’s fastest growing Saas (Software as a Service) (source ChartMogul SaaS Growth Report).
In addition, new features are already planned for release in the near future. First among these is the possibility of managing not only employees but also self-employed persons with VAT registration with the platform, allowing companies to guarantee transparency and punctuality in the treatment of payments even to collaborators and, at the same time, to have a complete and always up-to-date picture of the total workforce and related costs.
Marco Ogliengo, CEO of Jet HR, comments: ‘It is clear that we are on the right track: in addition to hundreds of satisfied customers and very important Italian investors, we now have the trust of an international fund like Picus Capital. Picus knows our industry well, having invested in several payroll and HR companies that have since become unicorns. They see the potential in us, and we are happy to work together and learn from them. It is crucial for the future of our country to have a strong economy. Our contribution, supported by our investors, will be to free companies from unnecessary bureaucracy so they can run.”
Francesco Scalambrino, (pictured with Ogliengo) co-founder and product lead of Jet HR, adds: ‘Among the many satisfactions of this first period, I put at the top the enthusiasm of those who have adopted our solution and come back to us describing the choice as a turning point for their business. They save really valuable time and energy, but above all they understand the situation of each individual employee clearly. The same goes for the employees themselves. Thanks to the trust of the investors with the new resources, we will continue to develop many new features and additions that will bring further value to our customers.”
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