Notably, Deel believes the addition of Capbase will help it “do more in the U.S. to support startups and help companies go global.” This will no doubt allow Deel to better compete with others in the space.
For example, last October, workforce management platform Rippling revealed a new globally payroll product that its CEO Parker Conrad wasn’t shy about admitting would directly compete with Deel. At that time, Conrad told TechCrunch the new offering would give Rippling’s U.S.-based clients a way to pay workers all over the world — whether they be full-time or contract — more “seamlessly.”
One company that Deel is not trying to compete against, though, is Carta.
“Capbase’s initial product is similar to Carta and Stripe Atlas,” Bouaziz said. “We’re not doubling down on that product. I think cap table management is important but a lot of companies have built a product around it and reinventing the wheel is not something we really like to do. Going into this market would be reinventing the wheel.”
“We really want to build a product solving global equity for the employer of record model for employees around the world,” he added. “We want to take that internal knowledge that was built in the U.S. and productize it globally.”
For Capbase, the offer to get acquired in an extremely challenging macro environment was more attractive than “continuing down the path of fundraising in a rocky economic climate,” admits Miaskiewicz.
The startup’s 20 employees are all joining Deel.
Miaskiewicz believes that with the two companies joining forces, Deel will emerge as an even stronger company.
“If you’re trying to sell services to startups or companies that will become the next big tech companies, you want to establish that relationship and offer them services as early in the lifecycle as possible because then you can build and offer them more and more services as they scale, so that you can monetize that relationship and build the customer lifetime value,” he told TechCrunch.
Meanwhile, Deel anticipates that it will have a “pretty solid working product” available to customers — which include companies such as Nike, Cloudflare, Shopify and Subway — by early to mid-February.
“Obviously with global compliance, we’ll be fine-tuning over time as the product gets more and more complicated and more and more tailored to the local jurisdictions and local laws,” Bouaziz said.
Equity management is clearly a hot area. On January 10, investment giant Fidelity announced that it had