UNLEASH’s top mergers and acquisitions in 2025’s HR market

It’s definitely been a busy year in the HR space, with some of the world’s biggest companies making strategic moves to better the sector.

To reflect on how far we’ve come, UNLEASH’s Editorial team has rounded up some of the most impactful M&As that have taken place over 2025, while hearing exclusively from a number of executives to understand the effect they’ve had on the market.

The deals have been ranked chronologically starting January 2025.

Paychex’s acquisition of Paycor

In a $4.1 billion deal, Paycor, a US-based HCM company, was acquired by Paychex – another HCM platform – meaning both businesses now serve 790,000 customers.

Paychex’s CEO and President John Gibson said the acquisition of Paycor will also “enhance” the business’s capabilities upmarket, while broadening its suite of AI-driven HR technology capabilities, to “provide new channels for sustained long-term growth”.

Speaking about the deal on LinkedIn, Gibson added: “For over 50 years, Paychex has been committed to helping businesses succeed.

This acquisition represents a significant milestone in our journey to provide best-in-class HCM solutions to businesses of all sizes.”

Safeguard Global bought by Deel

Safeguard Global’s payroll division – a key provider of global payroll solutions that serves an excess of 140 markets and processes more than 2.4 million pay slips per year – was bought by Deel.

Alex Bouaziz, CEO and Co-Founder of Deel told UNLEASH that the deal “reinforces” Deel’s position as a leader in global payroll.

He adds: “By integrating Safeguard Global’s payroll team, extensive expertise, and customer base, it will further our ability to win and manage large, complex global payroll projects.

“It’s an area where we are seeing significant growth that we’re now better positioned to capitalize on.

“Earlier this year we announced that we achieved a run-rate of $800 million and our acquisition strategy has helped spur our growth trajectory.”

Paradox’s acquisition of Eqtble

Conversational AI leader Paradox’s purchase of people analytics platform Eqtble marks the business’s third deal since it was founded in 2016.

The company’s CEO, Adam Godson told UNLEASH that “AI is clearly the future in talent acquisition and HR – and AI is nothing without a very strong data foundation.” He also describes the deal as a “strategic” purchase.

Godson continues to share that the deal supports Paradox’s “vision for how AI can continue to drive impact and outcomes for our clients – specifically around how the data foundation and insights Eqtble can drive will allow our clients to make smarter, faster decisions around their people needs, hiring process, and overall workforce strategy.”

Benefex and Benify’s merger

To continue their joint mission of boosting employee experience globally, Benefex and Benify merged to create Benifex.

Benifex Founder and CEO, Matt Macri-Waller, explains: “We are doubling down on investment in AI and data to offer unparalleled personalization and choice. We have a huge opportunity to help customers solve more of their challenges, wherever they are in the world.”

He continues that he is “driven by an unrelenting focus on employee experience,” while also working with the company’s customers to “build the future of employee reward and benefits,”

Workday buys Sana, Paradox, HiredScore, FlowiseAI and Evisort

At Workday Rising 2025, Workday announced the acquisition of AI company, Sana.

Whilst attending the conference, UNLEASH sat down with Workday’s CEO, Carl Eschenbach, who said that the deal will help to “enhance and change” the business’s user experience, allowing users to achieve everything they want to do in the enterprise.

He adds: “When Workday came to market 20 years ago, one of the big differentiations was our UI UX. People came to Workday because they were tired of the antiquated UI UX experiences on prior HCM financial platforms.

Over the last few years, our UI UX and the innovation around it have moderated, so we see this as an opportunity to completely revamp the user interface for Workday.”

A few months earlier, the business also announced its intent to “delve deeper into AI and recruiting” with the acquisition of Paradox, and HiredScore was bought by Workday to help provide a “comprehensive, transparent, and intelligent talent acquisition and internal mobility.”

During 2025, Workday also acquired AI business FlowiseAI and software company Evisort.

Zellis’ buys Hastee

Zellis, a £227 million-revenue HR tech company, has added a new company to its Group through the acquisition of Hastee, an all-in-one financial wellbeing platform.

The deal was made to help Zellis provide better financial education and planning tools to its customers, as well as earned wage access to its portfolio – including payroll-focused Moorepay and benefits provider Benifex.

The HR tech giant is now offering a comprehensive employee offering to its customers, including Sky, Legal & General, Jaguar, Harrods and Credit Suisse.

Hastee’s CEO Jaime Jiménez told UNLEASH that joining Zellis has created “a natural synergy” that has “enhanced the business’s core mission.”

Lumapps’ acquisition of Beekeeper

July saw LumApps, an AI-driven intranet solutions provider for desk-based teams, and Beekeeper, a mobile-first platform for frontline teams, join forces to create an all-in-one productivity and communication platform for frontline and desk-based employees.

Describing the deal as “a breakthrough for HR and IT alike”, Elie Mélois, Chief Product & Technology Officer, explains that it’s also making AI “truly accessible” for employees across the organization.

Mélois expands: “From microlearning to mobile workflows, everything flows in one place with embedded, secure, contextual AI that simply works. It’s not about adding more tools. It’s about the right one for everyone.”

Workleap acquires Barley

Canada-based AI-powered talent management platform, Workleap, bought end-to-end compensation management tool Barley.

Marking Workleap’s third acquisition in its 20-year history – having bought Didacte in February 2023, and Pingboard in December 2023 – Workleap made the strategic decision to add Barley to its portfolio, in a bid to unify two historically disconnected components of talent strategy: performance and compensation.

Speaking exclusively to UNLEASH, Workleap’s CEO and Co-Founder Simon De Baene says: “For our customers, this unlocks the power of performance data to drive smarter, more consistent compensation decisions.

HR teams can move seamlessly from performance reviews to compensation planning, without spreadsheets or switching tools. For employees, it means more clarity, trust, and fairness in how their impact is recognized and rewarded.”

Torch’s deal with Praxis Labs

AI learning platform Praxis Labs was bought by Torch, a coaching platform, which was first founded in 2017 and works with leading brands such as Reddit, Twitch, HP and Tripadvisor to help leaders adapt to the future of work.

The deal was made at an “incredible inflection point” for Torch, where the “collision of exponential change and human burnout” forced the company to “completely reimagine how we support leaders.”

Torch CEO Heather Conklin also told UNLEASH that  when coaching is done right, it “isn’t a perk”, but rather a “strategic lever.”

She adds: “This acquisition represents our belief that the next frontier isn’t choosing between human connection and AI capability. It’s about creating something even greater by bringing the best of both worlds together.”

Thrive acquires Guider and Huler

Learning and development specialist, Thrive made two strategic acquisitions this year by buying Guider and Huler.

In July, Thrive announced its deal with Guider to focus on “not just building a platform,” but “building a movement”, according to Thrive CEO and Founder, Sean Reddington.

One month later, intranet provider Huler was bought by Thrive to enhance the business’s employee engagement.

Cassie Gasson, Thrive’s Co-CEO, told UNLEASH that the acquisition of Huler will bring a “critical interface layer” to the company’s overall offering while “transforming the employee experience into something truly intuitive and consumer-grade.”

Upwork’s bought Bubty and Ascen

Back in August, Upwork’s announced the double deal of workplace management platform Bubty and global compliance and EOR business, Ascen.

The deal has provided Upwork with the tools needed to strengthen its compliance, scalability, and integration for large corporate clients, while also allowing the San Francisco-based company to expand its offering to independent contract workers.

When the deal was announced, Upwork was said to be setting its sights on the $650 billion global contingent workforce market, with the goal of positioning itself as a major provider of comprehensive talent solutions.

Remember & Company bought by EQT

Remember & Company, which operates Korean business card management app, Remember, was acquired by Swedish private equity firm EQT for $400M.

Prior to this, EQT raised over $10 billion for BPEA Private Equity Fund X – its latest Asia-focused flagship, which has a hard cap of $14.5 billion.

Dayea Yeon, Head of EQT Private Capital Korea and Partner in EQT’s Private Capital Advisory Team said in a statement: “Remember is a rare and differentiated asset, uniquely positioned at the intersection of South Korea’s demographic structural transformation and the rise of Al-driven talent management.”

Dayforce went private with Thoma Bravo

Global human capital management (HCM) technology leader, Dayforce, entered into a definitive agreement with private equity and software investment firm, Thoma Bravo, to become a privately held company – with an enterprise value of US$12.3 billion.

The deal created “significant opportunities” for both businesses to “accelerate growth, deepen customer impact, and continue to drive innovation across the global HCM landscape,”  according to Thoma Bravo’s Managing Partner, Holden Spaht.

Atlassian’s deal with The Browser Company

Atlassian, a software giant with a revenue of $4.4 billion, bought AI browser developer, The Browser Company.

The acquisition, which was worth $610 million, was proposed to allow the combined companies “to deliver the browser for knowledge work in the AI era”.

Speaking exclusively to UNLEASH, Atlassian Head of Product, Sanchan Saxena, says: “Work has changed. Many of the apps that knowledge workers use have moved to SaaS. And with that, the browser has become the gateway to those apps, or in other words – the place where work gets done.”

Employees will therefore be able to “get things done faster and better.”

SAP’s acquires SmartRecruiters

SAP first announced its intention to acquire SmartRecruiters in August 2025, confirming the completion of the deal in October.

SmartRecruiters CEO Rebecca Carr describes this as a way in which the businesses are “not just responding to the future of work”, but “building it.”

Since the acquisition, SmartRecruiters has still retained much of its independence by continuing to work with companies using non-SAP third party technology.

Additionally, Carr, who describes herself as a “people-centric leader” insisted that the deal could only take place if the entire SmartRecruiters was coming, too.

She told UNLEASH, SAP “did not want to let go of one person in our company – no-one has been and will be eliminated”.

BrightHire bought by Zoom

Over the past few years, Zoom has acquired a number of companies, including Bonsai and Workvivo, and in 2025, the business added BrightHire to its portfolio.

BrightHire Co-Founder & CEO Benjamin Sesser wrote in a blog that Zoom and BrightHire are “combining the best in hiring, communication, and workplace AI to transform how the world hires.”

He added that this marks an “exciting new chapter” for the business – one that accelerates the business’s “mission to give everyone the hiring experience they deserve, backed by Zoom’s scale, resources, and world-class technology.”

UKG’s buys Mo

Last month, London-based technology innovator Mo was acquired by technology giant UKG in a bid to bring the “power of recognition to more organizations and people than ever before.”

As part of the UKG Beacon solution, Mo is now integrated with UKG Ready’s comprehensive workforce data to deliver intelligent, data-driven employee engagement for small and mid-sized organizations.

“More broadly, this acquisition reflects what employers want from HR technology platforms,” Russell Howe, Group Vice President, EMEA at UKG told UNLEASH.

Businesses are looking for fewer, powerful tools that use AI to deliver more connected employee experiences.”

Findem’s acquisition of Getro

Before 2025 draws to a close, Findem – an AI talent acquisition and management specialist – was able to announce its acquisition of Getro – a job network used by more than 800 venture capital, private equity, economic development, chamber of commerce and professional networks globally.

Through the deal, the company will launch its Intelligent Job Posts – turning passive job listings into autonomous AI agents that aim to deliver hiring-ready candidates to organizations.

What’s more, Hari Kolam, Findem CEO and Co-Founder, told UNLEASH that Getro was “the missing piece” that will allow the organization to “bring trusted networks and agentic AI together.”

“They’ve built one of the strongest relationship-driven talent networks in the market, and we’ve built the intelligence that understands who will truly thrive in a role, not just who checks the boxes,” he concludes.