South African startup Jem HR, a WhatsApp-based HR and employee benefits platform used by over 200 companies and 250,000 frontline workers, has raised a US$8.4 million Series A funding round to support its expansion into a workforce management platform.
Founded in 2019 as SmartWage, and rebranded in 2022, Jem HR started off by allowing companies to provide their employees with instant access to a percentage of their salaries and wages for work they have already done. It then expanded beyond that, giving enterprises a simple yet effective way to digitise their most time-consuming HR processes, helping them save time and money in order to focus on people. The product gives employees without email the ability to receive company-wide communication, access their payslips, request leave and get access to financial wellness products, all via WhatsApp.
Jem, which raised a US43.3 million pre-Series A round last year, now plans further product expansion after raising a US$8.4 million Series A round, led by Quona Capital, which will support its expansion into a workforce management platform with new products such as time-and-attendance, credit scores and EAP already in place. Products like rostering, LMS, and more, are in beta. “Jem is the workforce management platform for deskless employees,” said Jem co-founder and CEO Simon Ellis. “Employers have spent years stitching together a dozen disparate systems to run their teams. Jem is now the one place they can do all of it.”
Other investors include the University Technology Fund, E4E, Next176/FutureGrowth, and a group of prominent angel investors, including former Old Mutual CEO Iain Williamson.
“We backed Jem because it sits at a powerful intersection – essential workforce software that lets companies build a deeper relationship with their people, trusted employer distribution, and embedded financial services that save everyday South Africans meaningful amounts,” said Johan Bosini, venture partner at Quona Capital. “Its WhatsApp-based platform is becoming an important infrastructure through which employers communicate with, manage and support their workforces.”