Led by Salesforce: Israeli company HiBob completes massive funding round at a $3.5 billion valuation
Israeli HR platform developer HiBob has raised $166 million in a round led by Salesforce. The company's valuation has reached $3.5 billion, with total funding since inception exceeding $700 million.
HiBob, developer of the employee management platform Bob, completed a funding round of $166 million on Tuesday, led by software giant Salesforce. This is the largest funding round in the company's history. Since its inception, HiBob has raised more than $700 million.
Sources familiar with the deal said that the investment will be used by HiBob for acquisitions and to expand its platform. The company's valuation in the current round stands at approximately $3.5 billion, compared to $2.7 billion in the previous round.
The platform provides organizations with reliable data on the workforce and the organizational context in which it operates, and enables the accurate, secure, and effective implementation of AI tools and agents. The investment is a significant vote of confidence in HiBob, its market positioning, and its ability to lead the change in how organizations manage work in the era of artificial intelligence.
It also signals that, contrary to predictions that cloud software companies, or SaaS, would lose their importance in the AI era, they are expected to play an even more central role. Companies that possess reliable data, a deep understanding of organizational structures, and embedded permissions and workflows can significantly expand the portfolio of services and the value they provide to their customers.
In September 2023, the company raised $150 million at a valuation of approximately $2.7 billion. That round was led by the American investment fund Farallon Capital, alongside the Alpha Wave Global fund and existing investors. Throughout its years of operation, HiBob has enjoyed the support of leading investment firms, including General Atlantic, Bessemer Venture Partners, Battery Ventures, Eight Roads Ventures, Index Ventures, Norwest Venture Partners, Entrée Capital, Vintage Investment Partners, and Arbor Ventures.
CEO Roni Zahavi said in a conversation with Bloomberg that the funding will be used by HiBob to invest in its HR platform, to explore acquisitions, and for geographic expansion:
"SaaS is not dead. SaaS is reinventing itself because of artificial intelligence. Do I see a company doing AI-coding for an HCM system that will replace a system like ours? Absolutely not. It is very complex and the data is very sensitive."
Zahavi noted that after appearing at Salesforce's Dreamforce conference in San Francisco, he got to know the company better through the integration of its product with Slack: "We share the same vision with Salesforce. We believe that people and agents, digital workers, will work side by side."
HiBob, which was founded in Tel Aviv, has 5,500 customers in 170 countries and competes with Workday. According to Zahavi, the company will not consider an IPO until it completes the integration of artificial intelligence, leaving all options open after 2027.
