Salesforce is heading up a new HiBob financing of $166 million and is providing the larger slice of the cash, according to people who asked not to be identified because the discussions are private. Farallon Capital Management is joining the round, per a statement reviewed by Bloomberg News. A Salesforce representative would not discuss specific terms, and Farallon did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
The latest raise values HiBob at more than $3.2 billion. Founded in 2015, the company has now pulled in over $700 million, up from a $2.66 billion valuation in its 2023 funding.
Software makers that sell subscriptions, including Salesforce and HiBob, are feeling heat from a wave of new AI tools that could upend how they make money. Rapid advances in AI helped spark a hefty selloff in software stocks earlier this year, and that chill moved into private markets as some investors warned of a looming "SaaSpocalypse."
To stay competitive with AI-first upstarts, incumbents are racing to weave AI into their products even as they face a more challenging capital-raising climate than those newcomers. Salesforce helped calm some nerves last week with its biggest stock pop in six years after it deepened its partnership with Anthropic PBC and projected strong revenue growth. The shares finished Monday up 0.6%, putting its market cap around $212 billion. Salesforce has repeatedly backed Anthropic, with its holding estimated at $5 billion, and in June the company revealed a $3.6 billion agreement to purchase AI startup Fin to bolster its customer service AI.
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HiBob builds software that helps companies manage HR tasks like onboarding and compensation, with a focus on midsize customers. Founded in Tel Aviv, the company reports serving 5,500 customers in 170 countries and going up against Workday Inc.
CEO Ronni Zehavi said the fresh capital will go toward investing in HiBob's HR platform, pursuing acquisitions, and expanding into more regions. "SaaS is not dead. SaaS is reinventing itself because of AI," he said, arguing that HR systems will not be quickly swapped out by AI alone due to security and governance needs. "Do I see a company vibe-coding an HCM to replace a system like us?" he noted, using the phrase to mean human capital management systems. "No way. It's very complex and the data is very sensitive."
Zehavi noted he spoke at Salesforce's Dreamforce conference in San Francisco last year and grew closer to the company through HiBob's integration with Slack. "We share the same vision with Salesforce. We believe that people and agents-digital workers will work side by side," he said. HiBob does not plan to consider an IPO until it finishes its AI integration, and after 2027 it will keep all paths on the table. As he put it, "Right now I think the bar is way higher than ever before for software companies" in the public market.
The check size, the valuation, and the buyer all point to this: even in a tougher AI-tilted market, investors are still writing big tickets for SaaS that can prove staying power and a clear AI roadmap. If you care about where software goes next, this is a sign that HR platforms with sticky workflows and credible AI plans can still command premium interest outside the glare of public markets.