Namely, Human Resources in the Cloud, Raises $45 Million in Round Led by Sequoia

Namely, a New York based company that offers a cloud-based package of human resource applications, today will announce it has taken a $45 million Series C investment led by Sequoia.

Prior investors Matrix Partners, True Ventures, Lerer Hippeau Ventures and Greenspring Global Partners also participated, bringing Namely’s total capital raised to nearly $78 million.

While there has already been a lot of disruption in the once-sleepy world of HR software, Namely CEO Matt Straz says his company targets the mid-market. That means companies of about 200 employees that are too big for Zenefits and too small for Workday.

Namely’s customers use the application to run payroll, track time off, manage health insurance and track employee reviews and promotions. It also has a social component for collaborating on projects and sharing information across a company.

“We set out to imagine what a new HR platform for growing companies would look like,” Straz said. It now has 250 customers operating in 20 countries, tracks some 40,000 employees and processes more than $1 billion in paychecks a year.

Straz previously ran Pictela, an advertising platform that he sold to AOL in 2011. He started Namely in 2012.

“Most people don’t like using HR systems, and they may use them maybe twice a year, when they enroll for their benefits and then to download their tax forms,” Straz said. “We set out to create something that people would use every business day.”

Namely is often compared to Zenefits. Like Zenefits, Namely is a licensed insurance broker in all 50 states. But Namely charges for its benefits software, unlike Zenefits, which offers its software for free, a practice that has angered the insurance industry.

Namely also allows its customers to continue working with their existing brokers. “We can be the broker if they want us to, but some appreciate a lighter touch,” Straz said.

Correction: We initially used old figures for Namely’s number of customers and the total number of employees on its system, and have updated them with fresh figures.

This article originally appeared on Recode.net.