Karen Serfaty and Gianina Rossi, both engineers from Argentina, worked for U.S.-based companies over the past 10 years, and the same issue kept coming up: how to manage taxes while being a contractor in another country.
Joining with San Francisco-based Josefina Van Thienen, who had worked at Microsoft building strategic partnerships with tech companies focusing in AI, they took a deeper look at the problem and found taxes weren’t the only problem when companies want to hire globally.
“When you’re working from Europe, Asia or Latin America, you are usually getting paid in U.S. dollars, not your local currency,” Serfaty, CEO, told TechCrunch. “You try to go to your HR manager for help in sending the money to a bank account, and the answer is usually ‘no.’”
How to approach building your first employee benefits package
So the trio started Atlas, a work benefits tool for global companies to manage their contractor benefits from one place. Through Atlas, companies can offer benefits like tax management, health insurance and social perks to their entire headcount no matter where they are located. There is also a marketplace of benefits that can be customized to the company or contractor.
They founded the company from Argentina in 2021. Latin America in general has become a hotbed of global remote talent, Serfaty said. The employee benefits market itself has experienced a lot of change and growth, especially during the global pandemic when there was a surge in remote hiring.
Customers took note. Atlas is working with companies, including Mercury, Firstbase, Deel and Payoneer.
“The goal was to get three customers in a month or drop the project, and we secured five,” Serfaty said. “Those clients’ accounts grew 5x in a year with us.”
Since launching the platform in March 2023, the company has designed proprietary features, incorporated hundreds of benefits and expanded their presence to cover 26 countries in the Americas and Europe. During that time, the company grew its revenue 2x and is close to an annual recurring revenue of $1 million.
Investors noticed, too. Atlas is the latest company to raise some seed extension funding to the tune of $2.75 million. Hi Ventures (former ALLVP) led the round and was joined by Oskar Hjertonsson, founder of Cornershop. In total, the company raised close to $5 million with other backers, including Jason Calacanis and Pioneer, investing in the seed round.
“We are seeing a lot of traction from customers, including bigger customers, with no churn, so we’re seeing a lot of stickiness,” Serfaty said. “The goal is to now grow our U.S.-based companies with global reach.”
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