SaaS Startup Bambee Raises $15M as Small Businesses Navigate HR During Tough Times

Francesca Billington

Francesca Billington is a freelance reporter. Prior to that, she was a general assignment reporter for dot.LA and has also reported for KCRW, the Santa Monica Daily Press and local publications in New Jersey. She graduated from Princeton in 2019 with a degree in anthropology.

SaaS Startup Bambee Raises $15M as Small Businesses Navigate HR During Tough Times
Photo by Scott Graham on Unsplash

Bambee, the L.A. startup offering HR services for $99 a month, has seen a boom in sales from small businesses struggling during the pandemic. On Thursday, the company announced it closed a $15 million Series B round led by QED Investors.

Between January and July of this year, Bambee's customer base grew by five times, as more companies hire HR to help navigate furloughs and PPP loans.


"Small businesses didn't know if they were allowed to be open, if they were supposed to be doing screening measures for their employees, if they were liable if someone got COVID," said Bambee's CEO Allan Jones, a former ZipRecruiter executive.

Bambee CEO Allan Jones

Bambee CEO Allan Jones

"We thought there was a void before the pandemic. It was magnified very clearly afterward."

Founded in 2016, Bambee connects clients with managers who can lead tasks such as hires and internal investigations. Jones said his customers span a range of industries from food and beverage to nursing homes.

"The response across the industry has been almost equal in interest. You've got an entire army of the Fortune 500 level focused on making sure the relationship between employee and employer is good," he said, adding that Bambee has few other competitors in for the majority of the businesses they target.

Since March, the company said 10.8% of new clients have been business owners launching companies mid-pandemic. Bambee will use the boost to expand its service offerings.

Alpha Edison and Mucker Capital also participated in the round, which brings the company's total funding to $32 million.

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Decerry Donato

Decerry Donato is a reporter at dot.LA. Prior to that, she was an editorial fellow at the company. Decerry received her bachelor's degree in literary journalism from the University of California, Irvine. She continues to write stories to inform the community about issues or events that take place in the L.A. area. On the weekends, she can be found hiking in the Angeles National forest or sifting through racks at your local thrift store.

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Provided by LAV

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David Shultz

David Shultz reports on clean technology and electric vehicles, among other industries, for dot.LA. His writing has appeared in The Atlantic, Outside, Nautilus and many other publications.

Mullen Automotive Pays Millions to Settle Lawsuit with Qiantu
Image Courtesy of Mullen Automotive

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