EOR Markets Making Big Moves & AI in your Job Application

Deel, RemoFirst, & RemotePass all race to the bottom

What's inside:

The Markets

Global EOR Market kicks off 2024 with a bang

2024 has been an active year so far for the Global EOR and HR Tech markets and there’s no signs of that changing. Last week we talked about Deel’s acquisition of Zavvy. This week, we’ll discuss yet another Deel acquisition as well as 2 other big investments into the Global EOR space.

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On March 5th, just days after announcing the Zavvy acquisition, Deel announced the acquisition of Payspace, a payroll and HR software company based in South Africa. Deel spent a cool $100M on the acquisition and adds Payspace’s 14,000 customers to Deel’s existing 20,000 customers.

In addition to announcing the acquisition on March 5th, Deel CEO, Alex Bouaziz, took this opportunity to announce that Deel has hit $500M in ARR.

One day after Deel’s announcement, Global EOR, Remofirst, announced it raised a $25M series A round led by Octopus Ventures just 18 months after its $14M seed round. Remofirst CEO, Nurasyl Serik, founded Remofirst in 2021 to “make EOR affordable”. How affordable you ask? Remofirst pricing starts at $199 per employee per month for its EOR solution. This compares to Multiplier’s $400, Oyster’s $499, & Deel’s $599 per employee per month price tags. In addition to being the low cost provider, Remofirst claims to better serve clients from a compliance perspective because they partner with in country legal experts as opposed to the competition who boasts about having direct legal entities globally. No matter how you slice it, though, you have to wonder if Remofirst has a practical path to profitability.

To round out the busy week in the EOR space, RemotePass, announced it raised a $5.5M Series A round led by 212 VC. Similar to Remofirst and Deel, RemotePass offers EOR globally in 150+ countries. Their pricing starts at $299 per employee per month.

So what’s the deal with the wide cost discrepancies in the EOR market? How can some providers offer a product for $199 while others are charging triple that? It all comes down to what you value as a buyer. Do you want a tech first approach on a solution designed for SMBs or do you want a real person to walk you through the entire onboarding process designed for SMBs as well as the enterprise?

Around the world

Did it just get harder to be an expat in Singapore?

Singapore just announced that, starting next year, the minimum salary for an employment pass will be $5,600 SGD/month which is up 12% from the current $5,000 SGD/month.

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$5,600 SGD is also the bottom. Depending on the candidate’s age and the company’s industry, the minimum salary could be higher. For example, according to the Ministry of Manpower’s (MoM) website, a 35 year old in the financial services sector needs to earn a minimum of $9,255 SGD (around 7K USD) per month starting in 2025.

The MoM said the adjustment is meant to "ensure that EP (employment pass) holders are of high quality, and to maintain a level playing field for locals".

According to a 2023 Reuters article, 30% of Singapore’s 5.9M person population is made of of foreign nationals working or studying in the country.

If you’re looking to expand your business in Singapore by hiring a foreign national, be mindful of the increase in minimum salary to do so.

AI

Accountants using AI?

The Big 4 accounting firms, Deloitte, PwC, EY, and KPMG, are cracking down on job applicants and the use of AI in the application process.

According to a March 2024 article in The Telegraph, applicants at Deloitte and KPMG are now required to confirm that they have finished online tests without external tools such as AI while applicants at PwC are being closely watched to ensure they too are not using AI in job applications.

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2 weeks ago, we highlighted a couple of companies using AI to hire candidates.

If companies can use AI to sort through talent, why can’t job seekers use the technology to give themselves a leg up over the competition?

AI in hiring and job seeking is at its infancy and it will be interesting to see what kind of legislation is passed to protect job seekers globally.

Strategic quick hits