NAIROBI, Kenya, July 2 – European HR technology firm Factorial has raised $150 million in a Series D funding round to accelerate the global expansion of its artificial intelligence-powered workforce platform, amid growing demand for digital human resource solutions in Kenya and across East Africa.
The funding round, led by General Catalyst, values the company at $2.5 billion and included participation from existing investors Atomico and Four Rivers.
General Catalyst will also provide an additional $540 million in non-dilutive capital through its Customer Value Fund, bringing the total financing package to more than $700 million.
The investment comes as businesses across East Africa increasingly adopt digital HR tools to automate payroll, compliance, recruitment and workforce management.
According to Factorial, the company serves more than 16,000 businesses across over 90 countries and is transitioning from a traditional software-as-a-service (SaaS) provider into an AI-powered workforce operations platform.
At the centre of the shift is Factorial One, a platform that uses AI agents to automate HR, finance and IT processes while assisting employees with workplace tasks.
Factorial Chief Executive Officer and Co-founder Jordi Romero said the investment will support the company’s AI transformation.
“Ten years ago, we started Factorial as a SaaS company. Today, Factorial is an AI-first company, working towards creating agents for our clients,” Romero said.
“We have completed our transformation journey by resetting the product, the architecture, and running our clients’ operations around AI agents. This partnership will give us the required confidence and capital to build an industry-defining product.”
The company said the funding comes as HR technology adoption continues to grow across Africa, driven by stricter regulatory requirements, increased cloud adoption and demand for automation.
According to Deloitte’s 2025 Africa Human Capital Trends report, more than 60 percent of medium-sized enterprises in Africa’s major cities have adopted at least one digital HR tool. Meanwhile, the African payroll software market is projected to grow from $487.3 million in 2026 to $1.66 billion by 2035.
Factorial said the shift is particularly relevant for Kenyan businesses, which are increasingly replacing manual HR processes with cloud-based platforms to improve efficiency and comply with evolving labour and tax regulations.
Factorial Vice President for Strategy and Partnerships Francesc Rul·lan said East Africa remains a strategic growth market for the company.
“East Africa represents one of the most exciting growth frontiers for enterprise technology. The ambition, the pace of business growth, and the appetite for intelligent solutions across Kenya and the wider region are unlike anywhere else we operate,” he said.
“We are committed to being a long-term partner to East African organisations as they build the people management infrastructure needed to compete and scale.”
