Deel

Deel is a payroll platform that generates labor contracts and tax documents facilitating international employment. The company aims to simplify the hiring of international contractors by allowing payments in more than 120 currencies and expediting the onboarding, compliance, and documentation process. Deel’s network includes more than 200 labor law and accounting experts to create localized contract templates to hire remotely in accordance with local jurisdictions. Deel launched in Canada offering payroll in Canadian dollars in January 2021 and served about 150 Canadian clients such as Castr, Bench, and Alegra, making up 11% of its total client base at the time. This followed its expansion across Europe into Italy, Germany, Spain, and Portugal in August 2020.

In January 2023 , Deel launched a full stack platform for global team management including 1) "Deel HR," a global HRIS module 2) US Payroll, an in-house payroll engine; and 3) "Deel Engage," a set of HR Slack plug-ins connected to Deel HR. Deel also offers complementary solutions such as instant wage access through Deel Advance (launched in October 2020 ), direct payroll funding using crypto ( February 2022 ), and spending accounts for contractors through the Deel Card (launched in March 2021).  Deel charges USD 50 per month for hiring independent contractors and USD 500 per month per employee for employee of record (EoR) services, as of February 2022.

Deel has deployed an acquisition strategy to add to its existing product offering and expand its geographic footprint. Most recent of which included the acquisition of PaySpace to strengthen presence in Africa ( March 2024 ), Zavvy ( February 2024) for integration and improved product offering, , and equity management startup Capbase ( January 2023 ). This was followed by other acquisitions including Australian payroll provider PayGroup (November 2022), compliance startup Legalpad ( August 2022 ), HR platform Roots ( January 2022 ), and German payroll, automation, and AI technology software startup Zeitgold ( August 2021 ). 

Key customers and partnerships

As of January 2023, Deel served over 15,000 clients, including Nike, Shopify, and Klarna, with a presence in more than, 150 countries, significantly surpassing that of peers such as Remote (54), Boundless (18), and is nearly on par with Papaya Global’s presence in 160+ countries. This is a key advantage as businesses get access to a broader talent pool when using Deel.  The company partnered with Coinbase in November 2020 , to facilitate salary withdrawals in crypto. In November 2021 , Deel partnered with Veriff, a global online identity verification company, to optimize Deel’s hiring, onboarding, and compliance offering and to support Deel with meeting KYC requirements to avoid fraud by detecting manipulated and false documents to identify fraudulent users. 

Funding and financials

In May 2022 , Deel reportedly raised USD 50 million in funding from new investors including Emerson Collective and existing investors including Andreessen Horowitz, Spark Capital, and Y Combinator. The round brought Deel’s valuation to USD 12 billion, from USD 5.5 billion at the time of its USD 425 million Series D round in October 2021 . The fresh funds were expected to be used to expand employee headcount, for product development, and for mergers and acquisitions. Deel was also expected to gain access to Emerson Collective’s portfolio companies to support their international expansion efforts. 

The company recorded annual recurring revenue (ARR) exceeding USD 100 million as of April 2022 (from ARR of ~USD 50 million as of December 2021 and ~USD 4 million as of January 2021).