Global HR and payroll platform Deel increased its India team by 45 percent in the past year, Mark Samlal, General Manager for the Asia Pacific region, Deel. With over 4,000 team members worldwide across more than 100 countries, India now makes up for over 12 per cent of Deel’s global workforce, he added.
“We are excited to bring on Indian customers and have a fully-fledged organisation here for sales, marketing, product development, engineering, and finance. We look at the Indian market as a growth market in the Asia Pacific region. And naturally, because of the talent here, we can also support global capabilities,” Samlal said, adding that Deel’s main focus is to grow its Indian client base.
Regarding the growth of employees in India, he stated, “We can create an ecosystem to onboard new Indian customers and support other functions required for global transactions. The growth in employees here shows that small to medium enterprises mid-market, and enterprise organisations are all our targets equally.”
Founded in March 2019, Deel currently has about 500 employees in India working remotely across 20 cities servicing the Indian marketplace.
Of the 250 organisations surveyed by Deel in India, 88 per cent expressed interest in hiring globally, along with 98 per cent of start-ups echoing the same. For 42 percent of organisations, a high cost was a major challenge preventing the integration of tech tools into HR practices. However, over 50 per cent used six or more tools for their companies’ HR practices.
Deel has helped CleverTap, one of its Indian customers, with globalisation. “Our research shows that in India, typically organisations use up to six different platforms to manage their HR processes. That’s creating an immense amount of overhead for the company and integration problems, which is counterintuitive to why you put a platform into place,” he said, adding that Deel will allow companies to manage all aspects of HR in one space.
One platform, one view
Deel helps its clients expand or manage their non-domestic locations by bringing all of their key strategic data back to the headquarters and providing one platform, one view of their entire workforce, Samlal explained. To avoid the overheads, Deel is looking to displace those six platforms into one.
“Our non-Indian clients are increasingly looking at the talent pool in India. Of the 9 pillars of our offering, one is called the employer of record (EOR). For example, if you’re in the US and are looking for AI talent, you can drop down the borders to find the talent wherever it may be,” he said, adding that because of EOR, international organisations grew their Indian footprint by 16 per cent in the last year.
Deel also extends its EOR services to over 100 countries. It provides visa support to over 38 countries and has issued more than 2,750 visas.
Deel has over 35,000 clients across 150 countries. The HR administration time saved by customers each month is around 86 hours, while the average amount saved using Deel EOR compared to setting up their own entity is $210,000.
The company is valued at $12 billion and has been profitable since September 2022. In March 2024, it witnessed an annual recurring revenue (ARR) of $500 million. To date, it has raised over $650 million in funding from investors like a16Z, Coatue, DST, Emerson Collective, and Y Combinator.
Acquisitions
In 2024, Deel acquired three companies: PaySpace, an African-based payroll and HR company to deepen its native payroll infrastructure and global coverage; Zavvy, a German people enablement company, since whose acquisition Deel has launched Deel Engage, a product leveraging Zavvy’s AI-backed learning, development, and performance tools; and Hofy an employee onboarding and device management supply company. This expands Deel’s equipment offering, and will soon enable it to launch Deel IT, its end-to-end global IT services platform.