Staffing Industry Analysts identified 72 “unicorns” in the workforce solution ecosystem with a total value of $196.2 billion. The most highly valued unicorn is Deel, a global payroll and compliance platform headquartered in San Francisco, California.

Unicorn describes a privately held startup with a value of more than $1 billion. Former unicorns include companies such as Airbnb, Meta (Facebook) and Google.

SIA’s new report identified unicorns in the “workforce solutions ecosystem,” a term that describes the larger staffing industry and all interconnected businesses. It encompasses business that provide services in staffing businesses, process outsourcing, payrolling/compliance, direct work engagement, talent acquisition technology and other workforce solutions.

Unicorns in the workforce solutions ecosystem represent 5% of the global value of unicorns of all types.

Almost three-quarters of workforce solutions ecosystem unicorns by total value are headquartered in the US with only 12% in EMEA and 14% in APAC.

Workforce solutions ecosystem firms with the largest valuations include:

1. Deel, $12.0 billion, payrolling/compliance, US
2. Gust, $10.0 billion, payroll and HR tech, US
3. Lalamove, $10.0 billion, B2B/B2C work service platform, Hong Kong
4. Automation Anywhere, $6.8 billion, robotic processing automation, US
5. Scale, $7.3 billion, training and accreditation, US

This report also identifies 296 venture capital firms that have invested in the Workforce Solutions Ecosystem.

The full Unicorns in the Workforce Solutions Ecosystem report can be viewed by corporate members of Staffing Industry Analysts. It was written by Brian Wallins, research director; John Nurthen, executive director of global research; and Kevin Chen, research associate.