Published by Jessica Weisman-Pitts
Posted on July 20, 2023
4 min readLast updated: February 1, 2026
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UK-based HR startup raises seed funding to make it easier for startups and SMBs to manage HR, IT and financial operations throughout the employee lifecycle
UK-based HR startup raises seed funding to make it easier for startups and SMBs to manage HR, IT and financial operations throughout the employee lifecycle
LONDON, UK, THURSDAY 20TH JULY, 9:00AM: UK-based HR startup, Zelt today announced it has raised $3.5M in seed funding in a round co-led by Episode 1 Ventures and Village Global, with participation from a number of high-profile angels including Charlie Songhurst, Mandeep Singh, Felix Leuschner and Daniel Hegarty.
Launched last year, Zelt provides companies with a single system from which they can manage HR, IT and financial operations across the employee lifecycle, enabling leadership teams to consolidate vendors and automate tasks where it concerns employees – across HR, payroll, onboarding, expenses and more.
“Until now, companies needed to piece together a number of different tools in order to run even basic people operations, due to the limited scope of the existing tools available. This made it difficult for companies to take a holistic approach, not to mention facilitate automation and self-service options.” commented Zelt Founder and CEO, Chris Priebe.
Studies from both Ernst & Young and CM have recently shown that HR professionals spend 86% of their time on administrative work within HR, while 85% of employees feel that information on general company procedures is not easily accessible.
Zelt’s deliberately holistic approach allows modern employers to support their employees within one platform throughout the entire employee lifecycle, providing all the services each person needs at every milestone. By consolidating technologies within its platform, Zelt reduces the need for companies to pass employee data from one system to another, improving overall data security and governance – a pressing concern of the National Cyber Security Centre (NCSC) following a number of recent high-profile incidents that exposed millions of sensitive employee records.
As it scales its offering for midmarket clients, Zelt already counts a number of fast growing tech startups and medium-sized businesses among its expanding customer base, some of those clients include software platforms One Trading, Two Inc, Deblock, Mumsnet and One Dome.
“As soon as we started using Zelt’s product we got excited. Chris has flipped the conventional thinking on its head and prioritised the employee journey right from the start. Zelt has worked out what services every employee needs and puts them on a timeline that makes the most sense for the user. Onboard in minutes with the right device and payroll configuration, setup software tools and schedule workflows, and then add to that as the relationship evolves.” commented Paul McNabb, partner at Episode 1 Ventures.
Using automation and a self-service platform, Zelt aims to ease administrative workloads by merging the core components of people operations into a single system that is integrated, automated and intuitive for employees to use.
“In the US, many of our portfolio companies have already replaced their HRIS with a more powerful platform such as Rippling, and seen immediate customer ROI. This trend is now spreading across the globe, and Zelt is one of the best products we have seen in the market. So we are extremely keen to support Chris as he continues to further improve the product and scale internationally.” commented Anne Dwane, co-founder and partner at Village Global, the venture firm backed by tech magnates like Bill Gates, Jeff Bezos and Mark Zuckerberg.
Zelt, which was recently nominated for user experience and design awards, the Awwwards, will use its latest tranche of funding to increase its marketing effort, and satisfy the growing demand from increasingly larger, more international customers.
Press Contact
Name: Megan Beaumont
Email: megan@mvpr.io
About Zelt
Zelt allows companies to efficiently manage their workforce across the lifecycle. By bringing together HR, IT & Finance into a single system, administrators and line managers can now get a holistic view of their teams across the lifecycle, and individuals are able to self-serve to a degree that was not possible previously, due the integrated nature of the system. Zelt is focused on building a platform capable of reducing the time employees and employers spend managing multiple vendors and repeating manual tasks associated with people operations activities.
About Episode 1 Ventures
Episode 1 is a founder-centric VC fund run by former entrepreneurs that invest at pre-seed and seed. Being among the earliest investors in companies like Carwow, Robin.ai, Huboo, Sano Genetics, Raft.ai, Attest, Omnipresent and CloudNC, Episode 1 is building a tech-augmented fund using the latest in AI to assist their investment team in finding the next generation of outlier founders.
Seed funding is the initial capital used to start a business, often provided by angel investors or venture capitalists to support early-stage companies.
HR management involves overseeing all aspects of human resources, including recruitment, employee relations, performance management, and compliance with labor laws.
Employee lifecycle management refers to the processes that manage an employee's journey within an organization, from recruitment to onboarding, development, and offboarding.
Automation in HR involves using technology to streamline and improve HR processes, reducing manual tasks and increasing efficiency in managing employee data.
Data security in HR refers to protecting sensitive employee information from unauthorized access, breaches, or data loss, ensuring compliance with regulations.
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