Thoma Bravo has made a strategic growth investment in Tanda, a workforce management, payroll and HR software platform serving shift-based employers.
The investment represents the first outside capital Tanda has taken since the company was founded 14 years ago.
Tanda’s co-founders will remain significant shareholders and continue leading the company, with Jake Phillpot remaining CEO.
Financial terms were not disclosed.
Thoma Bravo’s investment will support continued product development, including Tanda’s AI roadmap, along with expansion into additional geographic markets.
Tanda serves approximately 8,000 businesses globally across hospitality, retail, quick-service restaurants, healthcare and other industries with significant frontline workforces.
Its platform combines recruiting, onboarding, rostering, time and attendance, gross wage calculations and payroll on a single codebase.
Founded in 2012 in Brisbane, Australia, Tanda operates internationally as Workforce.com and serves customers across Australia, North America, the U.K. and Southeast Asia.
Barrenjoey Advisory is serving as financial adviser to Tanda, with SBA Law serving as legal counsel. Piper Sandler is exclusive financial adviser to Thoma Bravo, while Kirkland & Ellis and Allens are providing legal counsel.
Thoma Bravo manages approximately $170 billion in assets and has acquired or invested in approximately 600 software and technology companies representing more than $325 billion of aggregate enterprise value over the past 20-plus years.
KEY QUOTES:
“Taking on an investor was a very big decision for Tanda. We’ve been a bootstrapped company with no outside capital since we were founded 14 years ago. What started as an idea when we were still housemates at university has become a global business that we have built without taking shortcuts. Through a lot of hard work, we have market-leading products, growing market share and so much more room to grow. We thought the time was right to take on our first investor.”
“Thoma Bravo was the obvious choice as our financial partner. They understand software at an extraordinary level, have spent decades helping companies like ours scale and share our ambition for what Tanda can become. By partnering with the world’s number one software investor, we intend to become the global category leader in our space. Most importantly, the things that make Tanda precious won’t change. The founders will still come to work every day, and we’ll still obsess over how we can make our products better for our customers.”
Jake Phillpot, Co-Founder and CEO of Tanda
“Managing and compensating employees accurately is a fundamental obligation of all employers, yet it remains a universal challenge, particularly for businesses with shift-based employees. Employers are frustrated by a patchwork of legacy systems that cannot address their complex needs and expose them to operational and legal risks. Jake and his co-founders identified this problem and built Tanda from the ground up with customers and their employees at the center of every product decision. In doing so, they’ve laid the groundwork to become the definitive AI-native workforce management solution in the shift-based economy. We couldn’t be more thrilled to help them drive the next chapter of accelerated growth and innovation.”
Carl Press, Partner at Thoma Bravo
