Deel

39 major milestones

Deel is a San Francisco–based HR and payroll technology company that helps companies hire, pay, and manage international employees and contractors (EOR, payroll, HRIS, payments).

Latest Valuation

$12,000,000,000

6 Funding Rounds

Company Timeline

Years 0-4

Accepted into Y Combinator accelerator

Deel joined Y Combinator soon after founding, accelerating early product iteration and go-to-market.

Year 0 • 2019

Initial product: contractor payments MVP

Launched an MVP focused on paying international contractors; later pivoted/expanded into compliance and EOR services.

Year 0 • 2019

Company founded

Deel founded by Alex Bouaziz, Shuo Wang and Ofer Simon (Bouaziz and Wang met at MIT). Started to solve international hiring, payroll and compliance.

Year 0 • 2019

ARR milestone — early traction during pandemic

Benefited from the remote-work surge; reached early ARR figures and onboarded many YC companies as customers.

Year 1 • 2020

Series A — $14M led by Andreessen Horowitz (a16z)

Raised $14M Series A to scale product and operations as remote work accelerated during COVID-19.

Year 1 • 2020

Series B — ~$30M led by Spark Capital

Raised a Series B (reported as $30M / sometimes reported as $48M) to expand payroll, compliance and global footprint.

Year 1 • 2020

ARR milestone — $54M ARR reported (2021)

Reported ARR growth to roughly $54M for 2021 (jump from earlier year), demonstrating rapid revenue expansion.

Year 2 • 2021

Series C — $156M at roughly $1.25B valuation (unicorn)

Raised $156M in Series C (led by YC Continuity and participation from a16z), becoming a unicorn at ~ $1.25B valuation.

Year 2 • 2021Valuation: $1,250,000,000

Acquisition — Zeitgold

Acquired Zeitgold (payroll/bookkeeping software) to strengthen in-house payroll capabilities.

Year 2 • 2021

Series D — $425M at $5.5B valuation

Raised $425M led by Coatue and DST Global, scaling product, global entities and go-to-market.

Year 2 • 2021Valuation: $5,500,000,000

ARR milestone — $100M ARR (reached in ~20 months since $1M)

Hit $100M ARR (timeline cited as reaching ~$100M ARR by Q1 2022 / within ~20 months of $1M), marking rapid SaaS scale.

Year 3 • 2022

Global footprint expansion — entities & countries

Expanded Employer of Record (EOR) and entity footprint to legal entities in 100+ countries and payroll teams in 70+ countries.

Year 3 • 2022

Strategic funding — $50M (Emerson Collective participation) at $12B valuation

Raised $50M in a round including Emerson Collective; company valuation reported at about $12B.

Year 3 • 2022Valuation: $12,000,000,000

Acquisition — Legalpad (immigration startup)

Acquired Legalpad to beef up immigration/visa support and services for global hires.

Year 3 • 2022

Profitability milestone — EBITDA positive since Sept 2022 (reported)

Reported to be EBITDA positive starting in September 2022 with strong gross margins.

Year 3 • 2022

Acquisition — PayGroup completed

Completed acquisition of Australian-based payroll company PayGroup to expand payroll capabilities and APAC presence.

Year 3 • 2022

Customers milestone — 15,000+ customers (reported in 2023)

Reported serving over 15K customers across industries, including large brands like Shopify, Nike, Dropbox and others.

Year 4 • 2023

Acquisition — Capbase (equity/people development startup)

Acquired Capbase to enter equity management / people-development features.

Year 4 • 2023

Regulatory scrutiny — CA senator requests investigation

California state senator Steve Padilla formally asked state labor agency to investigate the misclassification allegations.

Year 4 • 2023

Allegations of worker misclassification become public

Former workers alleged they had been misclassified as independent contractors; company denied the claims.

Year 4 • 2023

Years 5-9

Acquired additional companies (Roots, Safeguard Global payroll division, others) — consolidation push

By end of 2024 Deel had completed ~11 acquisitions (including Roots, Safeguard Global's payroll division among others) to own more payroll and HR infrastructure.

Year 5 • 2024

Created 'Future of Work' advisory board

Launched advisory board with former U.S. officials (Elaine Chao, Heidi Heitkamp, Seth Harris, Charlotte Corley) to advise on policy and future-of-work issues.

Year 5 • 2024

Product launch — Deel HR and Equipment / Engage features expanded

Expanded product portfolio into Deel HR (global HRIS), Deel Equipment (device leasing/management), Deel Engage (talent development) and more HR features across the platform.

Year 5 • 2024

Acquisition — Zavvy (HR/development software)

Acquired Zavvy to deepen people-development and onboarding features as part of consolidation strategy.

Year 5 • 2024

Acquisition — PaySpace (African payroll engine); crossed $500M ARR

Acquired African payroll provider PaySpace and announced crossing $500M in ARR, expanding African footprint.

Year 5 • 2024

Acquisition — Hofy (IT device management)

Acquired Hofy to build in-house IT equipment/device management offering (Deel Equipment).

Year 5 • 2024

Acquisition — Atlantic Money (London-based payments/FX)

Acquired Atlantic Money to bolster European payment infrastructure and FX capabilities.

Year 5 • 2024

Acquisition — Assemble (compensation management)

Acquired compensation-management startup Assemble to strengthen pay/compensation tooling.

Year 5 • 2024

Product & integrations — payroll, HRIS and accounting integrations

Expanded product suite (Deel HR, payroll engines, instant contractor payments, USDC payroll funding) and integrations with QuickBooks, Xero, NetSuite and others.

Year 6 • 2025

Federal RICO lawsuit filed (allegations re: money laundering / sanctions)

A federal RICO complaint alleged Deel facilitated evasion of sanctions and violated money transmission rules; Deel denied wrongdoing and filed a motion to dismiss.

Year 6 • 2025

Compliance infrastructure expansion — DPayments obtains multi-state money-transmission licenses

Deel's DPayments subsidiary reported securing 26 US state money-transmission licenses as part of payments/compliance expansion.

Year 6 • 2025

IPO readiness statement from CEO

CEO Alex Bouaziz said in public comments that Deel is preparing for a potential IPO (as soon as 2026 or later).

Year 6 • 2025

Secondary share sale — $300M; General Catalyst added to cap table; reported $800M run rate

Completed a ~$300M secondary share transaction that added General Catalyst to the cap table; CEO reported an $800M annual revenue run rate.

Year 6 • 2025Valuation: $12,000,000,000

Headcount milestone — ~5,000 employees reported

Reported having ~5,000 employees (Wikipedia reference, Feb 2025).

Year 6 • 2025

Rippling sues Deel (allegation of corporate espionage)

Rippling filed suit accusing Deel of corporate spying; Deel denied the allegations. Dispute escalated with counterclaims/amended filings later.

Year 6 • 2025

Acquisition — Safeguard Global payroll division (announcement/closure period)

Reported acquisition of Safeguard Global's payroll division as part of building owned global payroll infrastructure (date reported in early 2025 coverage; deal included in 11 acquisitions count).

Year 6 • 2025

Legal action / counterclaims — Deel amends complaint against Rippling

Deel filed an amended complaint accusing a Rippling employee of repeated infiltration and theft of proprietary EOR product IP; dispute ongoing.

Year 6 • 2025

Company reports larger headcount — 6,500+ team members (company blog)

Company blog (June 3, 2025) claimed 6,500+ team members in 100+ countries and 35,000 customers — indicates rapid headcount growth.

Year 6 • 2025

Revenue milestone — surpassed $1B annual run rate; 75% YoY growth

Deel announced surpassing a $1 billion annualized revenue run rate in Q1 2025, reporting 75% year-over-year revenue growth and 35,000 customers and 1.25M workers on platform (company statement).

Year 6 • 2025Valuation: $12,000,000,000