Better HR, a spinoff of Myanmar’s digital consulting firm Nexlabs, is set to raise at least USD 500,000 in the first quarter next year, with plans to expand to Thailand, Cambodia, and Laos in the third quarter next year, the company’s CEO, Ye Myat Min, told KrASIA.
The company claims to work with over 150 companies across Myanmar, Vietnam, and Sri Lanka. Since its launch in September 2019, the customer base has jumped to 25,000 employees, processing salaries of up to USD 1 million per month, according to an announcement.
The startup offers cloud-based solutions to small and medium-sized companies to manage their employees. Its mobile application allows users to submit attendance, leave, payroll, chat, internal communication, and team management.
While Southeast Asia’s HR tech startup ecosystem is still at a nascent stage, consisting mostly of job portals, notable names such as Singapore-based EngageRocket, Swingvy, and international players like Gallup and Aon have already sprung up in the regional market.
“We started the company in Myanmar where businesses have to follow an array of different rules especially when it comes to payroll calculation. We made our system really flexible and easy to use, so any company could fit into our system easily, even some of our users are farmers,” Ye Myat Min told KrASIA.
He added, “We believe that such flexibility and usability is something that our competitors don’t have, even when we compete regionally. We priced our service at USD 1.2 to 1.4 per employee depending on the exchange rate, which is significantly cheaper than hiring an HR person.”
The news came one year after the firm raised a six-digit seed round from early stage VC Seed Myanmar Ventures.