{"id":219669,"date":"2025-10-17T11:48:07","date_gmt":"2025-10-17T11:48:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/219669\/"},"modified":"2025-10-17T11:48:07","modified_gmt":"2025-10-17T11:48:07","slug":"deel-shrugs-off-spy-scandal-to-boost-valuation-to-17bn","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/219669\/","title":{"rendered":"Deel shrugs off spy scandal to boost valuation to $17bn"},"content":{"rendered":"

Unlock the Editor\u2019s Digest for free<\/p>\n

Roula Khalaf, Editor of the FT, selects her favourite stories in this weekly newsletter.<\/p>\n

Deel has completed a $300mn funding round that boosts its valuation to $17bn, as the HR software start-up maintains the support of some of Silicon Valley\u2019s top venture capital firms despite an alleged spying scandal involving its bitter rival.<\/p>\n

The new round, which closed last week, was led by new investor Ribbit Capital alongside existing backers Coatue Management and Andreessen Horowitz, Alex Bouaziz, chief executive at Deel, told the Financial Times.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe have been profitable for three years, revenue crossed $100mn for the first time in September and we make circa $15mn to $17mn in Ebitda [earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortisation],\u201d said Bouaziz. \u201cThat\u2019s a 70 per cent growth rate, not bad.\u201d<\/p>\n

The company was valued at $12.6bn earlier this year when General Catalyst and Mubadala, Abu Dhabi\u2019s sovereign wealth fund, bought $300mn in shares from some early investors in a secondary transaction.<\/p>\n

Deel has been one of the fastest growing start-ups in San Francisco operating in the typically staid world of workforce management software since it was spun out of Y Combinator in 2019.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cWe have been tracking Alex and team since they started the company during Covid,\u201d said Micky Malka, founder of Ribbit. \u201cWhat they are showing with their revenue is the value of their service. You don\u2019t find many that get to that scale in five years in a super-complex business.\u201d<\/p>\n

However, its reputation has been hit by allegations<\/a> of corporate espionage from its main competitor, Rippling, against the CEO and his father. In a series of US and Irish lawsuits, Bouaziz is accused of recruiting a Rippling employee to pass on secrets and identify potential recruits, using code words and paying him in cryptocurrency.<\/p>\n

When confronted, the worker locked himself in a bathroom and deleted data from his phone, which he later smashed with an axe and dumped down a drain, according to his own testimony.<\/p>\n

\u201cI can\u2019t comment on ongoing litigation, but it\u2019s a frivolous lawsuit, a distraction,\u201d said Bouaziz. \u201cNew investors coming in and existing ones doubling down is a strong signal.\u201d<\/p>\n

Deel has sought to dismiss Rippling\u2019s initial claims of directing corporate espionage<\/a> and has filed a lawsuit in Delaware alleging its rival is trying to impugn Deel\u2019s reputation.<\/p>\n

Rippling, which offers similar services such as onboarding, payroll and corporate cards, has also attracted fresh capital this year. It raised<\/a> $450mn at a $16.8bn valuation in May from investors including Goldman Sachs and Baillie Gifford. The pair also share a backer in Coatue.<\/p>\n

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\u201cWe do our own diligence and deep work, we never follow the noise in the news or on Twitter, or the \u2018he said, she said\u2019,\u201d Ribbit\u2019s Malka said of the lawsuits. \u201cWe approached them, not the other way around\u2009.\u2009.\u2009.\u2009the company has to deal with what they have to deal with, I will not comment on that, but we have our eyes wide open.\u201d<\/p>\n

Anish Acharya, a partner at Andreessen<\/a> who is on Deel\u2019s board, said: \u201cWe have been investors since the series A, when it was a wee minnow\u2009.\u2009.\u2009.\u2009the company has just had the best six months in its history. It is a public market company in the very near term.\u201d<\/p>\n

While also declining to comment on the lawsuit or Bouaziz\u2019s conduct, Acharya added: \u201cThe people that know the business most intimately, those are the ones that are doubling down, and credible new investors are joining the cap table.\u201d<\/p>\n

Deel will use the money for more acquisitions \u2014 adding to the 13 it has made so far \u2014 improving its in-house payroll and banking software, as well as investing in artificial intelligence products, said Bouaziz.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Unlock the Editor\u2019s Digest for free Roula Khalaf, Editor of the FT, selects her favourite stories in this…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":219670,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[15],"tags":[45,49,48,137],"class_list":{"0":"post-219669","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-entrepreneurship","8":"tag-business","9":"tag-ca","10":"tag-canada","11":"tag-entrepreneurship"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/219669","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=219669"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/219669\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/219670"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=219669"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=219669"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=219669"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}