Earlier this summer San Franciso-based firm Ripping passed the landmark valuation of $1 billion for the first time. Parker Conrad and Prasanna Sankar’s new company caught my eye at an early stage and I was delighted to hear of both the valuation and the $145 million Series B fundraising led by Founders Fund.
Co-founded in 2016, Rippling’s fundamental aim is to make human resources easier through software. Its August valuation of $1.35 billion has jumped five-fold from little over a year ago, resting at $295 million in April 2019. The co-founders have now expressed an intention to expand, but the valuation offers a vital safety net in the midst of a world pandemic.
Conrad’s previous venture Zenefits had peaked at a valuation of $4.5 billion before unravelling amid compliance problems. It too offered a cloud platform, offering small businesses easy methods to manage and track its employees’ needs. He sees it as inspiration and lessons for Rippling, which has a secure client base in its automated services. It automates payroll and manages apps, software tools and work grounds that new and old employees require. Revenue in 2019 reached circa $10 million and growth has continued through 2020 despite the COVID-19 pandemic and its impact on small to medium-size businesses.
A particular benefit of Rippling is that is keeps all of its employees’ information updated as they get promoted, change groups or leave a company. As a result, it can save companies with small Human Resources teams endless hours and costs. Such a model makes it a long-term platform for companies to use; therein lies its main attraction of reducing the administrative workload for countless company executives.
Nicole Junkermann is an international entrepreneur and investor, and the founder of NJF Holdings, an international investment company with interests in venture capital, private equity, and real estate. Through NJF’s venture capital arm, NJF Capital, Nicole oversees a portfolio of over 30 start-ups across three continents, including in healthcare, FinTech, and deep tech.
