March M&A Recap - Recruitment Services and HR Tech.

LongBoard tracks M&A headlines and shares insights from leading recruitment service and HR tech companies. We also help our clients acquire great businesses.

Author

KC Clark
April 02, 2025

There were 25 acquisition announcements in March 2025. That is a 25% increase in deals tracked compared to March 2024. Here is a recap and highlights from March’s deal activity across staffing, HR tech, and workforce services:

March Deal Highlights:

eTeam acquires SOW provider Sirius Solutions - IT Staffing.
Takeaway: eTeam has acquired Sirius Solutions, a provider of statement-of-work consulting and staffing services across several specialties. This deal gives eTeam more revenue sources beyond traditional staffing into project-based solutions—a trend among staffing co's looking to deepen engagements with clients and preserve margins. Another signal that SOW is becoming core to contingent workforce strategies.

Employ acquires interview intelligence platform, Pillar - HR Tech.
Takeaway: "No more losing top talent to delays." Employ's 23,000 ATS customers (across there three ATS brands) will now have access to Pillar's AI-driven interview technology. Pillar was founded in 2021, raised $7M, and promises more efficiency throughout the interview process. Another step in the trend of embedding intelligence directly into the hiring workflow.  

Deel Acquires Payroll Provider - HR Tech.
Takeaway: Deel acquired PaySpace, a cloud-based payroll provider. This is Deel's 11th acquisition in the last three years! But that's not the only reason they are in the news. See below for a payroll themed “spy thriller” story… 

JobGet acquires service industry job app Seasoned - Recruitment Platform.
Takeaway: JobGet's acquisition of Seasoned is a consolidation of retail/hospitality focused hourly worker marketplaces. JobGet is growing to be a marketplace for many types of frontline workers. Both companies have had VC backing. Without knowing the full details, Seasoned likely faced a highly competitive hourly worker marketplace arena and a shortening runway. Their last raise was in 2021. 

ZRG acquires legal executive search firm - Exec Search.
Takeaway: This is ZRG's 21st acquisition since 2017. The Registry is a legal executive search firm, which adds niche expertise to ZRG’s growing portfolio of specialized search practices. ZRG also announced the addition of a strategic AI experienced board member this month.

Energage Acquires TalentQuest - HR Tech.
Takeaway: Energage's acquisition of TalentQuest brings a TA SaaS product into their workplace consulting services. TalenQuest built candidate assessment and development tools to improve candidate/employee engagement. Energage now has a stickier offering for companies in need of better employee experience solutions.

Other March Deal Headlines:
Wheelin’ & DEELin’:

Deel has been on a roll acquiring payroll providers and becoming a big global HR Tech presence. We document their M&A activity monthly it seems. However, that is not all they are now known for. Deel and competitor Rippling are in the midst of a THRILLING corporate espionage case (here is a summary written by Morning Brew, to catch you up). The latest twist is that the spy, who was allegedly hired by Deel’s executives to dig through Rippling’s Slack and company records for intel, just confessed to the allegations in a sworn affidavit. Both companies are valued around $13B. Both are likely eyeing an IPO. And they both have common investors…? Sounds like the parents need to step in to help settle this beef.

Did you read about any other deals we may have missed? If so, please reply with details. LongBoard will review and add our commentary in next week’s M&A brief!

ALSO, if you ever want your company name to appear in one of these headlines, The LongBoard Group would love to help!

More deals to come.

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