Pade HCM lands $500k pre-seed to automate HR processes for African businesses
In 2018, 80% of companies in Africa considered poor digitisation as a challenge to effective (HR) human resources-related processes, according to a report by Africa HR Trends.
Following the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020 where several companies were forced to work at home, the need to digitise these operations in areas like recruitment, payroll and benefits management, performance management, employee engagement, training and development became more glaring.
Towards the end of 2020, Seye Bandele—a former marketing lead at Yudala and Konga, and Lekan Omotosho —a former consultant to the FCT and state governments in Nigeria co-founded Pade HCM, a SaaS company with a mission to build the simplest and most efficient people operations platform.
"Our goal is to help businesses become more efficient, freeing up their time to focus on strategic work," Pade CEO Bandele, said in a statement shared with Benjamindada.com. "Professionals should not spend valuable time handling HR tasks that can be automated with little human interaction."
Since its launch, Pade HCM has helped over 100 African businesses become more productive and profitable by taking repetitive HR tasks off of schedules. In 2022, the Nigerian HRTech company processed ₦2.67 billion (~$6.3 million) in payroll and managed over 10,000 employee profiles.
By automating and simplifying HR processes, the company said it has achieved 'initial success', bootstrapping its growth to $100,000 ARR by the end of 2022. "Our software helps organizations with onboarding, HRIS, payroll, compliance, performance management, asset management, disciplinary actions, and exit processes, providing reliable HR management solutions in all areas," Bandele added.
To enable its expansion, growth and product development, Pade has secured $500,000 pre-seed funding in a round led by Zrosk IML, Zedcrest Capital, Microtraction, Expert Dojo, and Resilience 17, as well as participation from several angel investors.
"This latest round of funding marks a pivotal moment for the company, and Pade HCM intends to use the funds to change the HR industry in Africa. The new funding will also enable the company to expand its operations and invest in product development, helping Africa catch up to the new world of work," according to a statement shared with Benjamindada.com.
The statement further indicated that Pade HCM was founded with the recognition that Africa presents the largest opportunity for growth in the workforce globally. Africa is a continent with a young and rapidly growing population, but its economic growth and development have lagged behind other regions of the world.
This is reflected in the low productivity metrics across many industries and sectors in the region. A lack of investment in human capital creates a challenging environment for businesses and entrepreneurs, making it necessary for Africa to prioritize investment in its people and create an enabling environment for Businesses.
“Our key focus is to deliver Africa into profitability. Africa, despite being the youngest and fastest growing population on the globe has the lowest productivity metrics anywhere in the world," Pade HCM's mission statement, reads.
Following in the footsteps of existing HR companies around the world such as GustoHQ, Deel, and DayForce, African HR companies are leveraging technology to meet the unique HR needs of organizations in the region and stay ahead of the competition in an increasingly competitive business environment.
The HRTech industry in African countries like Nigeria, Ghana, Kenya, and Rwanda is growing rapidly. In the past, only large corporations like the FMCGs and banks paid attention to digitising HR processes and employee engagement methods. However, in recent times, the awareness and benefits of using HR tech to enhance business productivity have grown considerably in the continent's MSME market worth over $24 billion.