Bench, the VC-backed accounting startup that left thousands of customers locked out of their accounts after it abruptly shut down last week, will be acquired by Employer.com for an undisclosed price in a last-minute deal, the TechCrunch learned exclusively.
San Francisco-based HR technology company Employer.com focuses on payroll and onboarding, unlike Bench, which specializes in accounting and tax. Employer.com chief marketing officer Matt Charney told TechCrunch that the company will revive the Bench platform and provide instructions for customers to log in and retrieve their data.
Customers will be given the choice to transfer their data or keep their service under the new ownership, Charney told TechCrunch. The Bench’s previous recommendation to file a six-month extension with the Internal Revenue Service to seek a new accountant is no longer necessary if clients decide to stay, Employer.com confirmed.
Bench’s website, which is still offline at the time of writing, previously advertised to more than 35,000 “American small business owners” on its platform, according to an archived copy. (After publication, Employer.com told TechCrunch that Bench has approximately 12,000 customers.) Bench’s website currently reads: “More information on how to continue your services will be available soon.” The startup’s sudden shutdown on Friday caused chaos, with customers finding themselves locked out of their accounts just as tax season is about to begin and emails from TechCrunch to Bench employees being bounced.
TechCrunch confirmed the acquisition with a Bench board member. Neither Bench nor Employer.com would comment on the purchase price.
Employer.com is a new company: Its CEO, Jesse Tinsley, announced the purchase of the domain name in November for about $450,000. Tinsley is behind a host of HR, onboarding and recruiting businesses, including Recruiter.com and BountyJobs. In a Dec. 11 post, Tinsley said the company is “still buying companies” in the HR space. Employer.com is not VC-backed and is entirely self-funded, Charney told TechCrunch.
In a statement announcing the acquisition, Employer.com said Bench clients can expect to continue “working with the same expert in-house accountants they know and trust.”
“This acquisition ensures Bench customers can continue to rely on the same high-quality service they’ve always received, while also opening the door to future enhancements and capabilities made possible by Employer.com’s extensive resources,” it said. in the Employer.com statement.
This can be tricky in practice. Bench hired more than 600 people, according to its website, some of whom posted on LinkedIn after the announcement closed that they were now looking for work. Bench has now begun calling “many” — but not all — of its employees back to work to ensure continuity, Jennifer Bouyoukos, Bench’s chief people officer, told TechCrunch.
TechCrunch archived the original Bench closure announcement from Dec. 27 below:
