US-based human resources technology provider Zenefits revalued its $500m series C round yesterday, more than halving the valuation and supplying additional equity to investors including mass media company Comcast.
The series C investors’ collective stake in the company will be increased from 11% to 25%, and Zenefits’ valuation in the round accordingly cut from $4.5bn to $2bn. Earlier investors will receive small adjustments in order to offset the dilution of their shares.
Zenefits produces cloud software that helps simplify and automate workplace HR functions like onboarding, payroll, health insurance and other benefits from a central platform.
The company closed the series C round in May 2015, raising money from Comcast’s corporate venturing unit, Comcast Ventures, as well as Fidelity Management and Research Company, TPG, Insight Venture Partners, Founders Fund, Khosla Ventures, Sound Ventures, Andreessen Horowitz, Institutional Venture Partners and Jared Leto.
However, since then Zenefits’ revenue growth has slowed and it has run into trouble with several regulatory issues, most notably when it was discovered the company had developed a browser extension called the Macro that enabled employees to skirt the mandatory training requirement for insurance brokers in California.
Founder Parker Conrad’s resigned as chief executive in February this year due to the scandal, and some 350 employees have been let go in the months since.
Zenefits’ series C participants, most notably TPG which led the round, objected to investing in the company without knowledge of the Macro, and that triggered the comprimise deal, according to Forbes.
Current CEO David Sacks said in a statement: “The investor agreement has already been approved by a number of the company’s major investors including Fidelity, TPG, Andreessen Horowitz and Insight Venture Partners. We will be offering it to all our investors shortly.”
Zenefits has raised $580m in total since it was founded in 2013, closing its $66.5m series B round in mid-2014 at a $500m valuation.