Spanish HR tech startup Factorial has surpassed the increasingly uninteresting unicorn milestone this week with its announced $120 million Series C funding round, led by Atomico, with the participation of GIC and all of our previous investors, including Tiger Global, CRV, K-Fund, and Creandum. Additionally, Atomico partner Luca Eisenstecken has joined Factorial’s board as a part of its investment.

The company plans to use the funds to consolidate its position in Spain and expand throughout Europe as well as grow its presence in the United States.

Factorial’s CEO says the new round comes as HR Tch is undergoing an important pivot.

“HR has gone through a seismic shift across every industry – from a focus on workforce control to the primary function of empowering and challenging your employees,” said Factorial founder ad CEO Jordi Romero. ” Getting this right results in a key SMB strength: a close-knit, people-centric culture that many workers seek.”

Taking on Gusto, etc.

Factorial was founded in Barcelona in 2016 by Bernat Farrero, Romero, and  Pau Ramon. The easiest comparison is to call Factorial Europe’s answer to San Francisco-based HR-tech juggernaut Gusto.

There are other companies standing in Factorial’s path. These include legacy behemoths like ADP and Paychex, as well as other newer challenger SaaS brands like BambooHR, Workday, Zenefits, PeopleHR, and the aforementioned Gusto, and countless others.

And then there is PayFit, a French HR Tech Unicorn that breached that milestone back in January. PayFit got there via a $288 million Series E round, which gave it a roughly $2 billion valuation. PayFit was launched in France in 2015 by Firmin Zocchetto, Florian Fournier, and Ghislain de Fontenay.

Factorial has been a fundraising machine since we began following the company in April 2020. That’s when the company raised a $16 million Series A round billed as fuel to take on the leaders of HR tech. Since its founding, Factorial has raised more than $22 million