Workleap acquires Barley to ‘close the loop between performance and compensation’

The second half of 2025 has been busy in the HR tech world.

There’s been numerous mergers and acquisitions, including UKG’s purchase of Shiftboard, Zellis buying Hastee and the merger of LumApps and Beekeeper.

The latest news comes from Workleap, the Canada-based AI-powered talent management platform, which has acquired end-to-end compensation management tool Barley for an undisclosed sum.

This is Workleap’s third acquisition in its two decade history – it bought Didacte in February 2023, and Pingboard in December the same year. 2023 also saw Workleap receive CA$125 million in funding from CDPQ.

UNLEASH got the inside track on the acquisition from Workleap’s CEO and Co-Founder Simon De Baene. What does the addition of Barley to Workleap mean for the talent management company’s 20,000 HR customers?

‘Barley was the missing piece’ for Workleap

Talking about the purchase, De Baene tells UNLEASH: “We’ve always believed that performance and compensation should go hand in hand. Yet most tools still force HR teams to manage them in silos.

“After years of investing in engagement and performance, we finally had the right foundation to take on compensation — one of the most impactful and sensitive moments in the employee journey.

Barley was the missing piece. The right team, the right product, and a natural fit with our vision.”

By adding Barley to Workleap’s platform, the aim is to unify two historically disconnected components of talent strategy: performance and compensation. This means that the process from performance reviews to compensation planning and rewards sits in the same, modern system.

De Baene adds: “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.”

Ultimately, “Barley is joining us at exactly the right moment.

“With our deep focus on performance management and the rollout of Workleap AI across the platform, we’re now in a position to turn insights into action and close the loop between performance and compensation in a seamless, intelligent way.”

Speaking about the acquisition, Barley’s CEO & Co-Founder Jafar Owainati shared: “We started Barley to tackle the longstanding challenge for organizations to make proactive compensation decisions that are both data-driven and easy for employees to understand.

“The Barley solution naturally complements Workleap’s existing suite of tools, and joining Workleap was the clear next step for our team.

“Compensation is just one piece of the broader HR puzzle, and we are now even better positioned to deliver on our mission of building trust between employers and employees.”

Stay tuned for what the future holds for Workleap and Barley.