US-based employee benefits software provider Ease completed a $19m series B round on Tuesday that included Propel Venture Partners, the venture capital firm formed by financial services firm BBVA.
Growth equity firm Centana Growth Partners led the round, which also featured Compound Ventures, Freestyle Capital and Upside Partnership. The latter three had also contributed to the company’s $6.5m series A round in mid-2017, which was led by Propel Venture Partners.
Founded in 2012 as EaseCentral, Ease has developed a software platform that helps employers and insurance brokers enrol new employees and provide all workers with human resources information.
The company has 60,000 corporate customers, and the series B cash will be used to enhance its product and expand its team, beginning with the recruitment of Petar Nedyalkov as chief operating officer and Toshi Kureha as vice-president of engineering.
Ease co-founder and chief executive David Reid said: “We are thrilled to announce this funding, accelerating our mission to provide brokers and the SMBs (small and medium-sized businesses) they service with cutting-edge software.
“We are placing a major emphasis on carrier connectivity, which has allowed us to create tools that were never available before for SMBs.”
Freestyle Capital, Upside Partnership, Compound Ventures, Transmedia Capital and Deep Fork Capital had supplied $2.1m for Ease through a 2015 seed round.
