Legalpad, a Seattle startup that helps firms apply for visas on behalf of worldwide expertise, has been acquired by Deel, a San Francisco firm that sells software program to facilitate hiring and paying of workers on world groups.
Based in 2018, Legalpad helps American companies automate and simplify the method of submitting work visa functions for foreign-born workers.
Deel is a 3-year-old Y Combinator firm backed by Andreessen Horowitz. It reportedly raised a $50 million spherical earlier this yr at a $12 billion valuation.
“As work turns into extra distributed and world, collectively we are able to resolve the immigration challenges employers face when constructing a worldwide workforce,” Deel mentioned in a weblog submit concerning the deal.
The 2 firms first intertwined after Deel co-founder and CEO Alex Bouaziz used Legalpad to get a visa. Legalpad then used Deel when it employed its first contractor exterior the U.S.
Legalpad CEO Todd Heine wrote in a weblog submit: “Quick ahead to 2022, when Deel’s monumental progress and Legalpad’s regular success obtained us asking the thrilling query: What if Deel and Legalpad united our aligned missions to attach expertise throughout borders and to create a world the place capability alone determines alternative?”
Heine referred to as the deal a “very pure step in our journey as an organization.”
“Nice match, superior firm, world attain, cultural match, shared imaginative and prescient/mission, excessive stage of mutual respect, each remote-first firms,” Heine instructed Startup through e mail.
Phrases of the deal weren’t disclosed. Axios first reported on the acquisition.
Earlier than serving to launch Legalpad with Sara Itucas and Brandon Bloom, Heine labored as an legal professional advising companies on cross-border employment, tax, immigration, and company regulation.
Legalpad, a 2018 Techstars Seattle grad, raised $10 million in 2020 in a Collection A spherical led by Texas enterprise capital agency Amplo. Different backers embrace International Founders Capital, 8VC, Liquid 2 Ventures, Tekton Ventures, Gaingels, Collate Capital, and angel buyers. Complete funding to this point is $14.6 million.
The corporate’s 70-person group is staying aboard by the acquisition.
Legalpad is much like Seattle-based Boundless however Legalpad focuses on firms quite than people navigating the immigration course of.