Insider Brief
- Sparrow has raised a $35 million Series B round led by SLW, bringing its total funding to $64 million to expand its AI-powered leave management platform and address broader labor compliance challenges.
- The company streamlines complex leave processes across HR, payroll, insurance, and legal compliance, offering a centralized, automated solution trusted by over 1,000 companies including OpenAI, Reddit, and Oura.
- Backers praise Sparrow’s ability to transform a historically manual, error-prone HR function into a seamless, employee-centric experience that boosts retention, engagement, and ROI.
PRESS RELEASE — Sparrow, the leader in employee leave management technology, has announced it raised a $35 million Series B round of funding led by SLW. The Series B funding round brings the total investment in Sparrow to $64 million.
Sparrow will use this new investment to scale its revolutionary global leave management technology, enabling the company to expand its technology to address adjacent labor compliance issues.
Human resources and people operations professionals choose to work in HR because they like people — not paperwork and compliance. Sparrow’s end-to-end leave solution ensures that this compliance is managed correctly and consistently, creating a great experience for HR professionals and employees, and ultimately improving employee retention and engagement.
“Leave is complicated — and stressful,” explained Sparrow CEO and Cofounder Deborah Hanus. “It touches so many aspects of the company — legal compliance, insurance, state agencies, payroll, HRBPs, managers, and employees. Everything is always changing, and no one has the data they need when they need it. Sparrow has centralized that data to truly make leave — and adjacent areas of legal compliance — stress-free for the thousands of caring companies who trust us to support their workforce.”
“Through SHRM membership, our more than 325,000 members have access to live HR support at no additional cost. Every year, we receive over 60,000 calls, and for more than a decade, leave management has consistently been a leading concern for our members. It’s inspiring to see the meaningful impact Sparrow is making in this space. We look forward to supporting their continued success as they enter their next phase of growth,” said SHRM Chief Transformation Officer Andy Biladeau.
“With a distributed workforce, keeping up with leave compliance is difficult. Having Sparrow to navigate labor laws and align with our policies has been invaluable,” said Sparrow customer, Aura’s Senior Director of Total Rewards and Operations, Angela Barker.
Many Sparrow customers, such as Eightfold AI, have seen a significant financial ROI. “Sparrow pays for itself six or seven times over,” said Eightfold AI’s Vice President of People Operations Sonya Miller.
Matt Walsh, Managing Director at SLW shared, “We are incredibly excited about Sparrow because they are addressing one of the most complex and underserved areas of HR by utilizing AI to automate the manual, error-prone tasks that companies and employees encounter today. By combining deep compliance expertise with intelligent automation, Sparrow is transforming a significant pain point into a streamlined, employee-centric experience. As the future of work demands more flexibility and support for employees, Sparrow is uniquely positioned to become the category leader in this essential part of the human capital management (HCM) stack.”
Jeffrey Katzenberg, Cofounder and Managing Partner at WndrCo, which led Sparrow’s last funding round, elaborated, “My mantra is do good by doing good. When someone has a life event that requires them to take leave, great employers step up so that no one has to choose between work and the people they love. With Sparrow, a seamless leave experience brings employees back more loyal, more engaged, and eager to share just how supported they felt.”
Sparrow is trusted by more than 1,000 caring companies, such as OpenAI, Reddit, and Oura. On the software marketplace and peer-review site G2, Sparrow has a 4.8 out of 5 star rating.
About Sparrow
Sparrow is the first end-to-end leave management solution for modern employers to care for their people during major life events. Sparrow’s high-tech, high-touch approach automates the most painful parts of employee leave management, while our world-class leave specialist team ensures a premium experience for all types of leaves across the United States and Canada. Caring companies, such as OpenAI, Chime, and Reddit, trust Sparrow to reduce compliance risks, enhance the employee experience, and contain costs.
About SLW
SLW was founded in 2012 as Silver Lake Waterman, a later-stage growth strategy within Silver Lake, the global leader in technology investing. In 2024, SLW became an independent firm while maintaining collaborative relationships between SLW and Silver Lake. SLW partners with leading technology companies by investing repeatedly throughout a company’s lifecycle in both equity and flexible non-dilutive structures to meet evolving capital needs. The firm’s long-term, relationship-oriented strategy allows it to be an enduring partner for exceptional founders and management teams, providing flexible capital and strategic support at every phase of growth.
Contacts
Media contact
Brandy Patton-Miller
[email protected]
Featured image: Credit: Sparrow
