Back in April, Israeli FinTech startup, Deel, became one of the fastest to Unicorn status with a $156 million Series C, and it doesn’t seem to be wasting any time putting that capital to use. Today (Wednesday), Deel announced the acquisition of Israeli-German startup ZeitGold; the startup will see its 15 Israeli and 15 German employees join the global Deel team. And as the ink dries, Deel CEO is already planning the next purchase. Both companies refused to put a dollar figure on the deal, but it’s estimated to be in the tens of millions of dollars.

Both companies could save a lot of time and headaches for businesses

ZeitGold developed a platform that connects accountants and small businesses. The company offers accounting automation software based on artificial intelligence to help businesses run better payroll. The product assists independent contractors with their setup, bookkeeping, taxes and connects them with the best-in-class tax advisors.

By simply pushing a couple buttons, business owners can scan all payroll and tax related documents onto an easy-to-use app. Following ZeitGold’s AI-powered analysis, the business owner receives a detailed report of outstanding payments, in addition to being able to approve payments, and access historical business financial data. Come tax season, ZeitGold’s app can help SMBs here too, by filing annual reports and alleviating this headache prone task from busy business owners.

The company claims that business owners can shed 10 hours of accounting work off of their schedule every week, enabling them to focus on more critical issues. Additionally, ZeitGold claims to have developed AI technology that manages to consistently outperform the level of accuracy of its human representative counterpart.

ZeitGold was founded in 2015 by Stefan Jeschonnek and Jan Deepen, both previously founded FinTech startup SumUp. The two were later joined by Israeli entrepreneur Kobi Eldar -- the company’s CPTO. The company has raised almost $60 million to date. Among the company’s key investors, we find Vintage, Battery Ventures, Insurance company AVA, and Deutsche Bank.

On the acquiring side, there was a bit of excitement in the air; "with Zeitgold, we’re buying the best of the best,” noted Deel CEO Alex Bouaziz. “We’re taking Zeitgold’s best-in-class engine and plugging it into the core of our platform to help Deel supercharge its product offerings."

ZeitGold's link up with Deel was written in the stars, as both startups are engaged in the automation and facilitation of exhausting bureaucratic processes of business owners and organizations. Deel's system is intended for companies and organizations that employ workers or suppliers in several countries, and tries to make the process of employment, contracts and payroll automated and simple. The employer can choose whether they want to transfer money to employees through credit, bank transfers, PayPal or ACH systems, while employees can choose whether they want to withdraw the money directly to their bank account or PayPal account. The employer can simply pay all the pending payments with one click, or even create achievement-based payments for sales teams.

Deel CEO: This is only the first

Deel explains that post acquisition it will be able to add to its platform processing financial documents capabilities, along with payroll accounting automation and additional algorithms that will help it expand its services. All Zeitgold employees, Israelis and Germans, will join Deal, which currently has 250 employees (40 of them in Israel). In case you were wondering, all deal employees get paid through the platform they built themselves. Deel was founded in 2018 by Alex Boaziz - who serves as the company's CEO - and Shuo Wang, and since its inception has managed to raise $206 million from a number of major players in the VC game, including world - renowned Accelerator Growth Fund, Y Combinator, the Andreessen Horowitz Fund and the CEO of Uber.

“With the addition of Zeitgold, we will accelerate our growth even further and strengthen company leadership in Europe. We intend to upgrade our platform’s engine using their unique technology. The acquisition of Zeitgold is the first step of the company's plan to expand its services and growth through additional acquisitions in the future, ”said Alex Boaziz, CEO and founding partner of Deel.