Salesforce领投HiBob融资，估值约32亿美元但对上市公司短线增量有限

Salesforce Inc. is investing in human resources software company HiBob as part of a $160 million funding round that values the startup at more than $3.2 billion, according to people familiar with the matter.

The financing is being led by Salesforce with participation from Farallon Capital Management, according to a statement reviewed by Bloomberg News. Salesforce is providing the majority of the funds in the investment round, the people said, asking not to be identified because the matter is private.

A representatives for Salesforce declined to comment on the financial terms. A spokesperson for Farallon couldn’t immediately be reached for comment.

HiBob’s software platform is used by companies for human resources functions such as managing compensation and onboarding. HiBob, which focuses mostly on midsize companies, has now raised more than $700 million since its founding in 2015 and had a valuation of $2.66 billion in 2023 in its last funding round.

Software-as-a-service, or SaaS, providers including Salesforce and HiBob are under pressure as new artificial intelligence tools threaten their business models. Advancements in AI led to a massive software selloff in public markets earlier this year and spread to the world of private capital as investors warned of a potential “SaaSpocalypse.”

To counter this, software companies are rushing to incorporate AI to compete with so-called AI native rivals, even as they face a tougher fundraising environment than the new competitors.

Salesforce eased some of the fears last week when its stock saw the largest jump in six years after it expanded its partnership with Anthropic PBC and gave an outlook for strong revenue expansion. Salesforce has made made repeated strategic investments in Anthropic, with its stake in the AI company estimated at $5 billion. In June, it announced it would acquire AI startup Fin for $3.6 billion to bolster its customer service AI offerings.

The new investment will be used by HiBob to invest in its HR platform, explore acquisitions, and for its geographical expansion, according to Chief Executive Officer Ronni Zehavi.

“SaaS is not dead. SaaS is reinventing itself because of AI,” Zehavi said in an interview, adding that HR software won’t quickly be replaced by AI, partly because of security and governance issues.

“Do I see a company vibe-coding an HCM to replace a system like us?” he said, referring to human capital management systems. “No way. It’s very complex and the data is very sensitive.”

Zehavi said he appeared last year at Salesforce’s Dreamforce conference in San Francisco and got to know the company better through its product’s integration with Slack.

“We share the same vision with Salesforce. We believe that people and agents-digital workers will work side by side,” Zehavi said.

Founded in Tel Aviv, HiBob has 5,500 customers across 170 countries and competes with Workday Inc. The company won’t explore an initial public offering until it has completed its AI integration and is keeping all options open after 2027, according to Zehavi.

“Right now I think the bar is way higher than ever before for software companies” in the public market, he said.