Saudi Arabia-based HR tech platform, Palm.hr raises $5 million to expand across MENA
Palm.hr, a Saudi Arabian HR firm that automates payroll, tracks leaves and absences and monitors employee performance has secured $5 million in a pre-Series A round. The new funding will facilitate expansion into Egypt and other countries in the Middle East and North Africa(MENA) region.
The company says it is on a mission to transform human resource technology and offer better employee experience in the region, including onboarding and offboarding processes. The new round of funding was led by Europe-based VC Speedinvest.
Founder and CEO Richard Schrems said, “We want to merge HR-tech with fintech and insurtech for employees to be able to do everything like the purchase or rent assets, sign up to health or travel insurance, within our solution. We want to make Palm.hr a part of employees’ daily lives.”
Palm.hr was founded in 2019 by Schrems (CEO) together with Christoph Czichna (COO) and Dragan Nikolić (CPO).
In Saudi Arabia, the company’s technology has been integrated into some government services, such as Mudad for digital payroll and compliance, mandated by the country’s ministry of labor; the General Organization for Social Insurance (GOSI), and Muqeem, the foreign employee’s data platform.
“With Palm.hr, you can fully process your payroll, you can actually do the payments because we are integrated with the government payroll system; apply for visas because we are integrated with the government visa system, and update people’s social insurance because we’re integrated with the social insurance system,” said Schrems.
The demand for efficient tech-based HR systems is still high across the globe, but several gaps have been identified, with buyers expressing dissatisfaction with available solutions.
In a 2022-2023 HR Systems Survey by Sapient Insights Group, it was reported that HR technology is being used mainly to drive strategy rather than manage talent and outcomes.
