How Pade HCM is fixing the issue of worker engagement in Africa

When Lekan Omotoso and Seye Bandele met 11 years in the past in Nigeria’s capital metropolis, Abuja, they might not have guessed that they’d try to resolve a $24-billion problem by way of Pade HCM, the HR tech startup they’d go on to co-found. 

In 2012, they labored collectively on government-commissioned know-how tasks, Omotoso as an engineer and Bandele as an analyst. They misplaced contact for some time and reunited years later when Bandele began fascinated by how know-how may resolve an worker engagement downside he’d noticed whereas working for companies of various sizes.  “Present workers at corporations typically work in isolation, focusing solely on their particular person duties. In the meantime, new hires wrestle to navigate the abundance of details about the corporate [such as its hierarchy, performance evaluation system, tools, and culture],” Bandele mentioned on a name with TechCabal. 

HR professionals have asserted that they’re brief on the capability to concentrate on high-value duties and construct sturdy worker connections as a result of repetitive and time-consuming onboarding duties like filling types, sending reminders, payroll, and extra. HR know-how automates these duties, releasing up HR professionals to concentrate on extra strategic actions.

Bandele instructed TechCabal that there have been HR tech suppliers in Nigeria, however on the time, they principally served massive firms like FMCGs. “They have been comparatively costly for SMEs, and generally couldn’t meet their wants,” Bandele mentioned. He and Omotoso noticed a possibility to make a extra reasonably priced HR know-how and seized it.

A 7-digit stroke of luck 

The 2-person workforce, with Omotosho dealing with the software program growth and Bandele on the enterprise and advertising entrance, spent 18 months creating Pade, a proprietary answer for streamlined HR administration. Pade—a wordplay on paid—doesn’t solely carry out paperless (multicurrency) payroll features. It additionally provides a spread of options like customized approval workflows for depart requests, promotions, efficiency monitoring, OKR administration, disciplinary administration, and customized report constructing. Pade additionally offers an worker advantages administration answer to handle medical insurance, pensions, and different advantages each domestically and internationally.

“As a result of we didn’t have any sources, our plan was to do one thing quite simple after which expose it to small prospects like SMEs, after which use the information to make the product higher,” Bandele instructed TechCabal on a name. Nevertheless, solely 4 months after Pade went dwell in August 2020, proper after the lockdown when organisations have been transitioning to distant/ hybrid work environments, they landed a 4 million naira ($8,705) cope with TSL logistics—a big oil and fuel logistics supplier. In accordance with Bandele, the bootstrapped firm went on to earn an annual income of $100,000 the following 12 months from contracts that saved discovering their solution to Pade regardless of the absence of paid promoting. This continued all through the lockdown, a time that made personnel administration a veritable nightmare. 

Elevating half 1,000,000 {dollars}

On Monday, the corporate introduced that it has secured pre-seed funding of $500,000 from Zrosk IML and different traders. Earlier than this funding,  the startup had acquired help from the Microsoft-backed FAST startup accelerator programme, which chosen the startup for its first cohort in collaboration with Flapmax. This 12 months, Pade additionally obtained into Expert Dojo, a global early-stage startup accelerator that has invested in African startups resembling Eden Life, Commerce Lenda, VipLink, Aladdin, and others.

Pade’s success reportedly trails throughout over 19 African international locations. The HR tech startup said it has processed ₦3 billion (~$6.5 million) in payroll, managed knowledge for over 10,000 workers and yielded 300% progress from its subscription-based mannequin final 12 months. The CEO Bandele thinks that know-how can play a vital position in overcoming the most important expertise challenges in Africa, however it must be mixed with human efforts. He notes that workers’ calls for are always evolving, with many searching for distant work and one of the best use of their salaries. “To retain expertise, employers should adapt to those calls for, and know-how will help with this,” he mentioned on the decision. 

Talking of those calls for, a number of HR tech startups are stepping as much as assist African companies meet the evolving wants of their workers. Morocco-based Gwala recently raised a pre-seed round to present extra workers real-time entry to their wage. EarniPay in Nigeria additionally makes on a regular basis payday for workers. Gwala acquired undisclosed funding, whereas EarniPay secured a $4 million seed funding final 12 months. Earlier than that, Nigeria’s Seamless HR announced a $10 million increase to increase its HR and payroll options throughout Africa, together with “employee marketplace”, certainly one of its choices which provides embedded monetary providers listed as financial savings, loans, and investments, on its web site. This rings near what Pade plans to introduce in its upcoming product enlargement, which might be financed by Pade’s new pre-seed funding. Pade instructed TechCabal that it’s going to make additions to the corporate’s product line that may improve worker satisfaction and lifestyle by providing monetary providers and decision-making info.

With projections that Africa might be a significant supplier of distant expertise on the earth, the expansion potential for made-in-Africa HR tech options like Pade is big. The pulsating HR tech sector within the US and Southeast Asia lends much more promise to that potential. Final 12 months, the HR tech sector within the US reportedly acquired an funding value $12.4 billion from over 440 offers. Quite a few American HR tech corporations have achieved unicorn standing, resembling Deel, which provides world funds for distant workers, similar to Pade does. Regardless of solely launching in 2021, Deel already boasts an annual income of $295 million, according to Forbes. “The long run seems to be even brighter and presents a singular alternative for Africa to not solely take part in however paved the way within the digital transformation of HR,” mentioned Bandele.