Thoma Bravo Makes Strategic Growth Investment in Tanda
Thoma Bravo, the world's largest software-focused investment firm, has announced a strategic growth investment in Tanda, a leading workforce management, payroll and HR platform for shift-based workers. The investment will fuel Tanda's continued product innovation — including its AI roadmap — and its expansion into new global markets. Tanda's co-founders will remain significant shareholders and continue to lead the company, with Jake Phillpot staying on as Chief Executive Officer. Terms of the transaction were not disclosed.
The deal is notable for what it represents: a 14-year bootstrapped company taking on outside capital for the very first time. Founded in 2012 and headquartered in Brisbane, Australia, Tanda (operating internationally as Workforce.com) serves approximately 8,000 businesses globally across hospitality, retail, quick-service restaurants, healthcare and other frontline industries.
"We've been a bootstrapped company with no outside capital since we were founded 14 years ago. What started as an idea when we were still housemates at university has become a global business that we have built without taking shortcuts."
— Jake Phillpot, Co-Founder & CEO, TandaFrom University Housemates to Global Category Leader
Tanda's integrated platform brings together employee recruiting, onboarding, rostering, time and attendance, gross wage calculations and payroll on a single codebase — a natively built product suite that helps employers in complex, highly regulated markets manage compliance and pay their people accurately. For Phillpot, the decision to bring on a financial partner came down to shared ambition rather than a need for rescue.
"Thoma Bravo was the obvious choice as our financial partner," Phillpot said. "By partnering with the world's number one software investor, we intend to become the global category leader in our space. Most importantly, the things that make Tanda precious won't change. The founders will still come to work every day, and we'll still obsess over how we can make our products better for our customers."
"Jake and his co-founders built Tanda from the ground up with customers and their employees at the center of every product decision. In doing so, they've laid the groundwork to become the definitive AI-native workforce management solution in the shift-based economy."
— Carl Press, Partner, Thoma BravoWhy Thoma Bravo Sees a Fit
For Thoma Bravo — which manages approximately $170 billion in assets and has invested in roughly 600 software and technology companies over two decades — Tanda checks the firm's core boxes. The investment firm framed the workforce management challenge as both universal and stubbornly unsolved, with employers frustrated by legacy systems that expose them to operational and legal risk.
"Tanda has everything we look for in an investment: market leadership, a fiercely loyal customer base and a product-first founding team with deep domain expertise," said Adam Kinalski, a Principal at Thoma Bravo. He added that the founders have built "a rare business that matches strong product-market fit with exceptional operational execution," pointing to the shared mission of making Tanda the global standard in workforce management and payroll software for shift-based employers.
First outside capital. Thoma Bravo has made a strategic growth investment in Tanda — the workforce management platform's first investor after 14 years as a bootstrapped company. Terms were not disclosed.
Global scale. Founded in Brisbane in 2012 and operating internationally as Workforce.com, Tanda serves roughly 8,000 businesses across hospitality, retail, QSR, healthcare and other frontline industries.
AI-native ambitions. The capital will accelerate Tanda's product innovation and AI roadmap, with the stated goal of becoming the definitive AI-native workforce management solution in the shift-based economy.
Leadership continuity. Tanda's co-founders remain significant shareholders and stay in charge, with Jake Phillpot continuing as CEO — a deliberate signal that the company's culture and product focus won't change.
Investor firepower. Thoma Bravo, the world's largest software-focused investor with about $170 billion under management, brings decades of scaling experience and a mandate to help Tanda expand into new markets.