Gusto acquires Remote Team

Gusto, a provider of payroll, HR and benefits software for small businesses, has acquired Remote Team Inc., which provides HR technology for remote companies, to help businesses hire remote workers in other states and abroad.

The acquisition will add several new features to Gusto’s software, including international contractor payments in over 80 countries and simplified business tax registration in all 50 states and Washington, D.C. Remote Team, like Gusto, is based in San Francisco, but the company has a workforce as far afield as Turkey, as well as an office in Austin, Texas.

Financial terms of the deal were not disclosed.

The acquisition points to the increasing need during the COVID-19 pandemic for companies to operate with remote workforces, and to look for workers overseas in the midst of an ongoing labor shortage. A recent Gusto survey of 2,000 business owners found that half of them now manage a remote or hybrid team.

“This is the era of the empowered employee,” wrote Gusto chief product officer Tomer London in announcing the acquisition Tuesday. “As businesses compete for talent, businesses are realizing they have to meet employees wherever they are to accelerate hiring and attract candidates. Yet, for all the geographic flexibility and freedom they offer for employees, those models have historically come with an onslaught of compliance headaches for founders and people leaders alike. Our focus at Gusto has been to bridge that gap, so that balancing employee and business needs doesn’t have to be a binary choice.”

Besides state tax registration and international contractor payments, the acquisition will add a number of features to Gusto’s software, including mobile time tracking and geolocation, and remote hiring and onboarding.

Gusto recently acquired two other companies, Ardius, an R&D tax credit compliance software company based in Los Angeles, in June, and Symmetry, an Arizona-based payroll tax software company, in July.