Sympa powers rapid growth with extra investment from Alfvén & Didrikson

The latest funding is the second investment from Alfvén & Didrikson, a growth investor which specializes in Nordic technology providers and teams that have international ambitions. Having first invested in Sympa in 2016 this latest round represents a clear a vote of confidence in the Helsinki-headquartered, global-HR-solution provider’s performance.

“The rate at which we’re growing suggests that we are doing the right things”, says Keijo Karjalainen, CEO and founder of Sympa. “Companies are increasingly aware of the true value of their employees, and there’s a growing realization that they need sophisticated human resource management tools to bring that value out further. Sympa’s customizable HR solution stands apart from the competition. It never stops evolving to meet the changing needs of our customers and they, in turn, are always spreading the word!”

Sympa’s current primary growth targets are the Nordic countries and the Netherlands. Sympa is seeking to grow its workforce by 25% in the next year. The company will add at least 10 new people to its R&D teams and double the size of its Swedish operation to twenty people. The HR software provider’s international expansion will continue, driven by acquisitions of current reseller partners. A new Sympa office is to open in Oslo, the Norwegian market having previously been served by a reseller network. Sympa has also recently acquired its Dutch and Danish reseller partners and brought their teams onboard.

There’s strong growth potential in the Nordic region; for instance, the Swedish market alone is over two times the size of our home market,” says Karjalainen. “While we provide a truly global system, we never forget that HR is highly localized. For example, workplace and employment law is unique to each jurisdiction. Maintaining local offices is essential to understanding our customers’ businesses and the regulatory environments in which they operate, something few HR software providers offer.”

The company has set ambitious targets and is expecting to see accelerated growth. However, there is still work to do to get companies to realize the business benefits that HR solutions offer. “We want to educate the market; modern HR is so much more than just payroll and work time management,” says Karjalainen. “The further south you go in Europe, the less you find cloud services being used. But the opportunities are huge! Ultimately, our mission is to make HR software so straightforward, intuitive and trouble-free that it never distracts HR professionals from focusing completely on their people, supported by the smart decision-making that Sympa enables.”