TL;DR: The world is moving in this direction but nothing catches my eye yet. Seeing more point solutions (mat/pat leave etc.) rather than end-to-end core software right now.

Besides mat/pat players, companies are still repackaging old HCM software in better UI/UX and doing manual exports of rewards, allowances, etc. It’s really hard to go international due to each geography’s preferences and culture. Few in the US have been able to layer in insurance as well. Overall bullish on the tailwinds but don’t think any company has been able to build something beyond an incremental improvement yet.

If evaluating Europe, the benefits culture is very different and should consider a different set of evaluation criteria. France is one of the hardest countries to tackle re benefits - they have government mandated benefits.

Tailwinds

• Generational Shift > Boomer to Gen Z / Millennial

  • Care about different things

  • Pensions becoming a thing of the past

  • Gym, traveling, mental health, fertility

• Remote / Hybrid first > need more flexible benefits and different benefits that are RELEVANT

  • More gig / freelancers

• Technology first

  • Old UI / UX is not going to fly

• Great resignation

  • Focus on attracting and retaining talent

  • Benefits packages = competitive advantage

• TLDR

  • Future of work

• Tends to be more tech companies focused on doing better benefits packages – understand target market

• American landscape is more fragmented into

  • Benefits admin > for HR / ops

  • Benefits providers > old school, integrated with insurance

  • Perks > non insurance

Key Question: How to drive higher utilization % and lower costs?

American Companies

• Compt

• Benefitfocus

• Beneplace

• Nava benefits

• Forma – life benefits

• Rewards

  • Kazoo

  • Blueboard

  • Perkspot

  • Xceleration partners

  • Everythingbenefits

  • Achievers

European companies

• Sodexo

• Edenred

• Worklife

• Swile

• Flash

• Benify

• Perkbox

• darwin

• Happypal

• Cobee (portugal)

• Coverflex

• Ben (London)

• Club employes (meal voucher)

• Circula

Other

• Mercer

• Aon

Other consideration factors

Insurance?

• Integration with broker, if playing with insurance?

Regulations

• Regulations / mandated? % allocated towards benefits?

  • France has pro-benefits regulation of CSE

Product

• Card? Interchange? What are revenue lines? What is recurring?

• Global expansion > good or bad strategy?

• What is proprietary? Product? Tech? insurance integrations?

Specifically from company POV

• Cost efficiency - How it drives utilization % of benefits to ultimately save money for the company

• Tax benefits if any

• Data reporting / ease of use for HR / ops

• User experience > digital is table stakes

Specifically from rom customer POV

• User experience > digital is table stakes

• Flexibility – can customize? Stipend style?

• If just perks / rewards, how to layer in local market dynamics and culture? What do people want?

Customer Type

• Target customer – enterprise, mid, micro?

  • ACV expansion opportunities

  • Industry preference?

Metrics

• ARR retention and growth

• Pipeline / sales team

• Tends to be not a sticky product > how are they creating stickiness?