The COVID-19 pandemic has led to the rise in remote working and as a number of people have moved back to their home countries, and as restrictions are being lifted, countries they have always wanted to live in.
As a result, employers are seeing the need to offer remote-first jobs if they want to find the best talent. However, unknowingly, a lot of employers are breaching the local employment laws due to a lack of proper knowledge on the same. This is where Irish HR tech startup Boundless steps in.
Raises Seed funding
The startup has raised €2.5M in seed funding to support companies to compliantly employ talent globally and by providing them several benefits such as covering compliance, employee rights and more. The round was co-led by Ada Ventures and FYRFLY. The startup has so far raised a total of €3.6M.
Dee Coakley, co-founder and CEO of Boundless, says, “From failing to register workers in the proper jurisdiction through to incorrectly hiring people as contractors to perform permanent roles, these worries are being felt across the entire leadership team – from the CFO and Head of Legal to the COO and Head of HR/People Ops. Employment laws, tax codes and statutory benefits all differ from country to country. Cultural norms around working also vary significantly. Overlooking or misunderstanding these norms only makes it more challenging to recruit and retain talent.”
What Does Boundless Do?
Founded in 2019, Boundless, a remote employment platform empowers the staff of various organisations with its legal aids. Using the Employer of Record model, the HR tech startup combines technology with deep local market and operational expertise to help businesses with international teams to employ staff in compliance with local laws and local tax regulations.
Besides that, Boundless collaborates with employers to create benefits and insurance packages. It works with all kinds of organisations, such as startups to big corporates and public companies with 64,000+ global teams.
According to Boundless, some of the companies it has helped includes tech start-up Stark, cloud computing business Transparity, and Next15, which is a publicly-traded group of media companies.
Boundless Team
Boundless comes with an experienced set of technology specialists. Coakley, CEO of the startup, spent more than 14 years working outside Ireland, and he is a three-time COO. CTO Emily Castles, an experienced software engineer, has worked on distributed teams in her entire career. CSO Eamon Leonard spent the last two decades developing and building products, leading teams, and creating communities. The Irish startup claims to be one of the few startups worldwide that has a female CEO-CTO duo that has raised funding.
Future Plans
With 19 staff working in eight countries, Boundless operates in some of the world’s most tightly regulated markets. The startup wholly owns, operates and manages subsidiary businesses in 16 countries across four continents and has plans to expand to 35 countries by the end of 2021 and also looks to hire deep domain experts in payroll, HR and legal. It further plans to double the team in the coming months, hiring across payroll, legal, HR, engineering, marketing, and sales.