Borderless AI Launches HRGPT: AI-Powered HR Search Engine Backed by $32M Funding

HR software startup Borderless AI raises $5M, launches HRGPT search engine - SiliconANGLE

HR software startup Borderless AI raises $5M, launches HRGPT search engine Borderless AI Ventures Inc., a Toronto-based developer of human resources software, today announced that it has raised $5 million in fresh funding. The capital was provided as an extension to a $27 million seed round the company closed last year. The latest raise included the participation of Aidan Gomez and Ivan Zhang, the co-founders of large language model developer Cohere Inc. The latter company nabbed a $500 million funding round of its own last June that valued it at $3.5 billion. Hiring international employees can be challenging for enterprises because it requires navigating local employment regulations. The larger the number of countries in which a company has staff, the more complicated the task becomes. Borderless AI's HR platform promises to simplify the workflow. The platform provides access to employer of record, or EOR, services in more than 170 countries. An EOR is a company that can take over the legal responsibilities associated with hiring international employees to simplify enterprises' regulatory compliance efforts. It also eases related tasks such as payroll management. Borderless AI offers its core EOR offering alongside a number of other features. There's an artificial intelligence expense management tool that enables workers to upload receipts for business purchases and request reimbursements. HR teams, meanwhile, have access to a centralized file repository for storing employment documents. Shortly after launching last May, Borderless AI inked a partnership with Cohere. The companies set out to train a custom AI model for its HR platform. In conjunction with its announcement of the investment from Cohere's founders, Borderless AI today expanded its AI feature set with a new tool called HRGPT. The company positions the offering as a search engine for HR use cases. A chatbot interface enables HR teams to find regulatory requirements and other information necessary for their work using prompts. Employees, meanwhile, can query HRGPT about topics such as their company's expense reimbursement policy. Under the hood, the tool uses AI to scan an enterprise's internal file repositories for relevant information. Borderless AI says that HRGPT can also fetch data from the public web. It includes citations in each prompt response to let workers verify the underlying AI models' output. Besides retrieving information, HRGPT can also automate common HR tasks. It generates employment contracts to help companies avoid the legal expenses associated with creating an agreement from scratch. It's likewise capable of creating job descriptions. Borderless AI will use its new funding to build more search features and launch HR-optimized AI agents.

With New Strategic Funding from Cohere, Borderless AI Launches HRGPT, an AI Search Engine for Enterprises

TORONTO, Jan. 16, 2025 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Borderless AI, the company disrupting HR software, today launched HRGPT, a free AI search engine that lets employees and HR managers search across their company's universe of data and applications as well as Borderless AI's knowledge base of HR laws and guidelines, getting instant answers to their most complex HR queries. HR teams can also use HRGPT for essential HR tasks like generating employment agreements, creating job descriptions and compensation benchmarking. Borderless AI emerged from stealth last year with its AI-powered HR platform, which introduced a series of AI Agents that enable companies to pay and manage their international employees. The product has hundreds of customers, including global brands like Dunlop Sporting Goods, Incubeta and Raya, and an AI agent performs a task for a customer on the platform every hour. With HRGPT, employees can now get detailed information and data about matters like PTO, a current project deadline or even their personal benefits plan - all at a time of their choosing. This dramatically improves the employee experience and frees HR managers to focus on higher-value tasks. Greg De Santos, CFO of Incubeta who has more than 800 employees worldwide, said: "Our employee experience has fundamentally changed for the better. With HRGPT, we effectively have a 24/7 HR sidekick that can answer questions and engage in any language around the world for our team -- it's a real productivity boost, saving our teams countless hours each day. We also used HRGPT to create an employment contract for a new employee and could do so in about 20 minutes without needing an attorney. We saved time and money. That's a game-changer." With the launch of HRGPT, Borderless is continuing to disrupt HR software. "With HRGPT, you can get answers to HR questions across both internal and external data sources - all in one place. That's not been done before. Unlike other general-purpose AI search engines, we are hyper-focused on innovating in the HR space. HR-specific search will fundamentally change how HR software operates," said Willson Cross, co-founder and CEO of Borderless AI. HRGPT offers five key capabilities that set it apart from general-purpose AI search engines: AI-Powered Enterprise Search: HRGPT enables organizations to search and retrieve company-specific HR data and information, ensuring teams can quickly access internal policies, procedures and guidelinesReal-Time Information Retrieval: HRGPT actively searches the internet for answers, synthesizing information from multiple authoritative sources to deliver concise, relevant responses. This contrasts with many general-purpose AI search engines that rely on stale data without real-time capabilitiesCitations and Source Transparency: Each answer is accompanied by citations, allowing users to verify the information quickly. This feature enhances trustworthiness compared to other AI search engines that often times provide answers without transparent sourcingAI-Powered Employment Agreement: HRGPT enables the creation of employment agreements for new employees within minutes, automating a previously complex process to save time and moneyMultiple Language Models: HRGPT leverages multiple advanced AI models depending on user needs. This flexibility allows for tailored responses based on the complexity of the query Together, these capabilities make HRGPT an indispensable tool for modern HR teams. Borderless AI Raises $5 Million Seed Extension Led by Cohere, Bringing the Total Funding Raised to $32 Million Today Borderless AI also announced a $5 million extension to the $27 million seed round announced last year, led by strategic partner Cohere. Borderless AI's platform leverages Cohere's LLM, which is optimized specifically for enterprise use cases. "Our partnership with Borderless AI accelerates AI adoption in this critically important market by offering secure, performant AI designed specifically for business use across the HR category," said Aidan Gomez, co-founder and CEO of Cohere. "We look forward to deepening our relationship with Borderless AI in building business solutions that power the future of global HR." Borderless AI will use the new funding to accelerate its efforts to bring AI Agents and expand on its enterprise search product. About Borderless AI Borderless AI builds AI agents for HR departments. The company leverages the power of generative AI to automate and accelerate routine tasks for HR teams such as employee onboarding, payroll, paying international team members, in addition to offering businesses search and knowledge management solutions by connecting companies' applications and databases. The company is headquartered in Toronto, Canada and is backed by Cohere, Susquehanna and Aglaé Ventures. For more information, go to: https://www.hireborderless.com/. Media and Analyst Contact: Amber Rowland amber@therowlandagency.com +1-650-814-4560 Market News and Data brought to you by Benzinga APIs

Borderless AI emerges from stealth with $32M in funding to disrupt HR tech

Join our daily and weekly newsletters for the latest updates and exclusive content on industry-leading AI coverage. Learn More A new artificial intelligence startup is betting that HR departments will become the next major battleground for enterprise AI adoption, launching a specialized search engine that aims to transform how companies manage their workforce. Borderless AI, which emerged from stealth last year, announced today the release of HRGPT, a free AI-powered search engine that allows companies to query their internal HR data alongside employment laws and regulations. The company also disclosed a $5 million strategic investment from AI company Cohere, bringing its total seed funding to $32 million. "Every HR department is going to have AI agents that manage various aspects across the HR stack," said Willson Cross, cofounder and CEO of Borderless AI, in an exclusive interview with VentureBeat. "We're proud to be at the forefront of that vertical." How Borderless AI's HRGPT is transforming workforce management The Toronto-based startup is positioning itself to compete with established HR software providers like Workday and ADP by focusing exclusively on AI-powered solutions. Its platform already counts several multinational companies as customers, including Dunlop Sporting Goods, which uses the technology to manage employee onboarding across 17 global offices. Unlike general-purpose AI chatbots, HRGPT combines real-time web search with access to internal company data and specialized HR knowledge. The system can perform tasks ranging from generating employment agreements to tracking time-off requests and managing international expense reimbursements. "Unlike ChatGPT, we have real-time web search. When a customer asks HRGPT a question, it scans the web for real-time sourcing and citations," Cross told VentureBeat. The platform also integrates with PricewaterhouseCoopers for employment law expertise. Strategic investment signals rising interest in industry-specific AI tools The investment from Cohere signals growing interest in vertical-specific AI applications for the enterprise. While consumer AI tools like ChatGPT have captured public attention, Cross believes the next wave of AI adoption will come from businesses. "For the next two to three years, it's going to be the businesses that are catching up and waking up to bringing AI to their organizations," he said. "HR is one that has many applicable use cases." Borderless AI's approach reflects a broader trend of AI companies focusing on specific industries rather than trying to build general-purpose tools. Similar vertical-focused companies include Harvey AI in legal tech and Sierra in customer service. Building a billion-dollar HR tech company with AI at its core The company's ambitious vision includes automating complex HR processes like payroll management and employee analytics. Cross indicated they aim to build a billion-dollar company with fewer than 50 employees by leveraging AI extensively in their own operations. However, Borderless AI faces significant challenges, including prioritizing which features to build next amid strong customer demand. The company must also maintain accuracy and compliance in its automated HR functions, particularly for sensitive tasks like employment agreements and international payments. The startup's success could signal whether specialized AI tools will successfully compete against established enterprise software providers who are racing to add AI capabilities to their existing products. For now, early customers appear convinced: Borderless AI reports that its AI agents perform tasks hourly across its customer base.