Employment Hero’s UK revenue rises 84% in a year

Employment Hero said on 12 November that annual recurring revenue from its more than 30,000 UK customers rose 84% over the past year. The payroll, HR and recruitment software company, founded in Australia in 2014 by its chief executive, Ben Thompson, and Dave Tong, now counts the UK as its largest market outside Australia.

The worldwide numbers came a day earlier. Employment Hero said it had passed A$400m (£206m) of annual recurring revenue after adding A$100m (£52m) in a year, and that it remains free cash flow positive. The company is not listed, and the figures are its own.

Its UK customer count has risen 22% since the start of 2025. Thompson called the UK a major priority for him in the 12 November announcement, carried by IT Brief UK. He put the milestone down to demand for AI software that makes employment simpler, and said the company had spent a decade building something that goes further than traditional HR and payroll software.

In the 11 November announcement, carried by IT Brief Australia, he said the company had grown fast while its own customers traded through very hard conditions, and that labor markets were in the early stages of a large AI-driven change.

Thompson’s spending list

The growth, he said, means the company can “invest hard in the next wave of innovation for our customers”. He named payments, recruitment, its suite of AI agents and the Hero Foundation, its non-profit work to get people into jobs. He said he and Tong are hands-on in each of them.

Employment Hero says it already processes pay for businesses in six countries. UK customers are promised payroll updates that bring faster payments and fewer manual steps, and a compliance agent to help small businesses keep up with employment law. Employment Hero gives no date for either, and neither announcement says how the compliance agent will be priced.

Its recruitment agent is already on sale. Employment Hero describes itself as an employment platform with a talent pool built in, and the agent draws on verified employment records and the candidates in that pool. HRD reported on 11 November that it checks applicants are real people, runs first-round screening interviews and passes a shortlist to the hiring manager, and that customers are charged only when a candidate is placed.

Employment Hero’s own agents

The company runs agents inside its own business too. In an interview with the Australian Financial Review, as reported by HRD, Thompson said Employment Hero has no plans for redundancies and has lifted revenue per employee. HRD attributed much of that lift to agents working in the company’s own product, marketing and customer service teams, and Thompson pointed to a system that rewrites company data in terms those agents can work with.

HRD reported that Employment Hero’s employee costs still rose 29% over the year, and Employment Hero says its UK headcount is up 58% since January 2025.

Yorkshire and the South West

The next stage in the UK targets Yorkshire and the South West, aimed at growing businesses outside London in areas where small and medium-sized firms provide much of the local employment. It includes a partnership with Leeds United, which the company says brings it closer to the city’s businesses.

Kevin Fitzgerald, managing director of Employment Hero’s UK business, said in the 12 November announcement that employment costs have gone up for small firms but that their ambition has held, and that he sees large opportunities across the country as AI arrives. He described the investment as a way to get closer to the businesses that drive local economies, learn what holds them back and give them the tools to grow.

For the UK, its second-largest market, Employment Hero publishes a revenue growth rate, a customer count and headcount growth. It has published no UK revenue figure, so its share of the group cannot be worked out.

Employment Hero has named what its growth will pay for and where in the country it will sell next. It has not yet put a price or a date on the employment-law agent, or a revenue figure on the UK.