Employer.com has acquired MainStreet.com for an undisclosed amount, the latest fintech startup to get snapped up by the workforce management company.
In a post on X, Employer.com Chairman and co-founder Jesse Tinsley said the two companies were “merging forces to simplify business back office solutions into one powerhouse platform.” Tinsley confirmed the acquisition to TechCrunch.
MainStreet, a San Jose, California-based startup founded in 2019, built a business around helping startups uncover research and development tax credits. The startup generated revenue by taking a put from the pool of credits. MainStreet had some success in its first year, crossing the $1 million ARR run rate threshold and helping the average client save $51,000. In 2021, MainStreet’s revenue crossed $15 million, per industry newsletter Not Boring.
Signs of potential trouble appeared in 2022 when MainStreet laid off about 30% of its staff, citing “an incredibly rough market.” At its prime in 2021, MainStreet was valued at $500 million. The company was said to have closed on a financing in 2022 at a $200 million valuation. (According to PitchBook, the company raised $31 million of Series B venture funding from Alumni Ventures, Ethos Fund and Scribble Ventures that June).
It’s unclear what MainStreet’s balance sheet looked like immediately prior to this acquisition, although Tinsley told TechCrunch in an interview the company was profitable. In total, MainStreet raised nearly $96 million in known venture capital from investors such as SignalFire, Tusk Ventures, Shrug, Moxxie Ventures, Weekend Fund, Gradient Ventures, Sound and SV Angels.
One of MainStreet’s investors introduced the company to Employer.com, according to Tinsley. MainStreet’s 15-person team will be joining Employer.com as part of the transaction, which has about 500 employees across all its companies.
With the acquisition, Employer.com is valued at just north of $700 million, Tinsley said.
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The San Francisco-based company has been on a shopping spree recently.
In late 2024, Employer.com announced it was acquiring Bench, a VC-backed accounting startup that left thousands of customers locked out of their accounts after it suddenly shut down, in a fire sale. Last week, Bench conducted a round of significant layoffs. And in January, Employer.com had offered to acquire Level, a fintech startup that abruptly shut down after failing to find a buyer but that deal didn’t go through.
“When we originally started Employer.com and then bought Bench, the overarching theme… is basically automating an end-to-end platform for the G Suite for the business back office,” he told TechCrunch in an interview. Buying MainStreet is in line with that goal, Tinsley said.
In late January, Tinsley and Employer.com was reportedly teaming up with YouTuber MrBeast and others to save TikTok by submitting an all-cash bid for the app, according to a report in Bloomberg. It’s unclear what happened to that alleged buyout attempt although Tinsley publicly confirmed in March that he was part of that $30 billion bid.
