As a result of the pandemic, people are returning to their home countries due to the many restrictions. This has opened the door to a new era of global employment in which employers recognise the need to offer remote-first jobs. However, thousands of organisations are currently breaching local employment laws without even realising it.
Investment from London VC
Dublin-based Boundless, a remote employment platform, helps companies compliantly employ talent globally while giving their employees access to benefits and opportunities in the country they work in. Now, this company has raised €2.5 million (nearly £2.1 million) in seed funding.
The investment round was co-led by London-headquartered Ada Ventures and FYRFLY to represent the significant shift to remote working, which is worth multi-trillion euros now.
Dee Coakley, Co-Founder and CEO of Boundless, commented: “From failing to register workers in the proper jurisdiction through to incorrectly hiring people as contractors to perform permanent roles, these worries are being felt across the entire leadership team – from the CFO and Head of Legal to the COO and Head of HR/People Ops. Employment laws, tax codes and statutory benefits all differ from country to country. Cultural norms around working also vary significantly. Overlooking or misunderstanding these norms only makes it more challenging to recruit and retain talent.”
“More than half of our current portfolio has at least one female founder, so it’s fantastic to back another female-led company that has the potential to become a global leader,” commented Matt Penneycard, Founding Partner at Ada Ventures. “The Boundless team is one of the most customer-centric we’ve ever worked with – everything they do is about building and delivering the best possible customer experience. So, while this is undoubtedly a hot sector with well-funded and talented competitors, we believe Boundless has the most robust approach for building a very large business over the long term.”
Julie Maples, Founder and General Partner at FYRFLY, said: “We bet on the Boundless team because of their industry expertise and leadership. As a seed stage fund that invests in Europe and distributed teams, we know they are uniquely suited to serve the needs of a truly global workforce.”
Fixes legal issues in remote employment
Boundless fixes the problem in remote employment and becomes the legal employer of staff using the best-practice Employer of Record model. The company combines easy-to-use and intuitive technology with deep local market and operational expertise to help businesses with international teams to employ staff in compliance with local laws and local tax regulations. Furthermore, it works with employers to build benefits and insurance packages, beyond the statutory minimum, thereby enabling companies to stand out as an attractive employer looking to compete for the best talent in those markets.
The business works with organisations of all sizes from fast-growth startups to large corporates and public companies with over 64,000 global teams that aim to be great employers wherever they hire, and whatever level they’re hiring at.
Expansion plans
Founded in 2019 by Dee Coakley, Eamon Leonard, and Emily Castles, Boundless is one of few fast-growth startups worldwide to have a female CEO-CTO duo that has raised funding. It is a remote-first employer and has 19 staff working in eight countries and is active in several of the world’s most tightly regulated markets. It wholly owns, operates and manages subsidiary businesses in 16 countries across four continents, with plans to expand to 35 countries by the end of 2021.
As of now, it only hires deep domain experts in payroll, HR and legal who can take on the toughest employment and local compliance issues. It plans to double the team in the coming months, hiring across payroll, legal, HR, engineering, marketing, and sales.
Boundless works with Stark to ensure its team members in Canada, Ireland, Portugal, and the UK have equitable benefits. It has also helped cloud computing business Transparity to establish a new 24/7 support function in New Zealand, ensuring the same high-quality employee experience as its UK team. Next15, a publicly traded group of media companies, is also using Boundless’ international expertise to grow its team while compliantly employing people in six countries.