Seek Exits Employment Hero After Legal Dispute
Synopsis
SEEK is selling down its remaining stake in Employment Hero, as an eight-year director relationship comes to an end. The judgment comes after DAM sent seething letters to SEEK and Employment Hero over the relationship, demanding they terminate what it claimed was an anti-competition arrangement. With a legal issue resolved and Employment Hero clocking over $300 million in annual recurring revenue, the two companies claim that the exit feels like a natural move. SEEK seeks to redeploy the capital and Employment Hero continues its international growth on its own as an independent, AI-based HR and payroll leader.
SEEK has now commenced a formal process to divest its minority shareholding in Employment Hero, following the full and final settlement of a Federal Court dispute over API access back in January. A cornerstone investor since 2017, SEEK’s venture arm has exited as the HR platform exceeds $300 million in annual revenue.
- SEEK initiates the sale process for its remaining shares in HR platform Employment Hero.
- It comes after a battle over access to platform software has ended in the courts.
- Employment Hero has grown massively and now helps 350,000 businesses on a global scale.
- Both companies paint the split as a normal one for a long-term investor.
One of Australia’s finest names in employment technology is about to split. SEEK, the Australian job provider website is planning to sell down its remaining stake in the HR and payroll platform, Employment Hero. The transaction brings to an end SEEK’s tenure as an investor in the company, which first put money into the startup in 2017.
The move follows a strained legal row in the Federal Court between the two companies that was settled last month. Employment Hero had sued SEEK last year, alleging that the job giant tried to prevent its use of a crucial piece of software. From within the Employment Hero platform, businesses were able to post job ads on SEEK via this software. SEEK rejected any wrongdoing, saying that it was only enforcing its standard rules. The case was dismissed in January 2026, after Employment Hero conceded that SEEK did not intend to harm competition.
In spite of the recent courtroom drama, both companies are portraying the sale as something positive and natural. SEEK’s investment fund has reaped a very large result for its money over the last eight years. Employment Hero started small in Australia, but it now considers itself a global company and has an annual revenue of more than $300 million. The business has grown so many thousands of times bigger than it was;, SEEK feels the time is right to take its money off the table and scan for other big opportunities.
Last year, SEEK had already begun to scale back its stake when it sold a $95 million piece of it to the investment firm KKR. By selling the remainder now, SEEK effectively crosses out of being a partner-investor and into being a partner-competitor. Though they will still operate together from a technical standpoint, letting users post jobs across both platforms, there will no longer be any financial relationship between them. This clean break gives the two companies room to each pursue their own objectives without a conflict of interest.
Employment Hero chief, Ben Thompson said the company is moving into its next chapter in a really strong position. The platform is now in use by hundreds of thousands of businesses across Australia, Britain and Canada. With SEEK out, the company may also start to look for new investors internationally to help it extend its focus even further into the world of AI-driven workplace tools.
This is one of the more successful exit tales for the Australian tech market in recent years. SEEK has already made enormous multiples on its initial investment, and Employment Hero has demonstrated that it can be deputed from SEEK as a multi-billion-dollar unicorn. As they go their separate ways, both companies are still important parts of how millions of people find and manage their work every day.
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