This Visier company profile covers the company's valuation, revenue, funding rounds, investors and history. Visier works in HR technology, with a focus on people analytics software. It was founded in 2010 and is headquartered in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada. Its latest valuation on record is Above US$1 billion (June 2021). Every figure links to a public source, and anything the company hasn't disclosed is marked as such.
Revenue
| Metric | Value | As of | Source |
|---|---|---|---|
| Total funding | About US$219.5 million (reported) | June 2021 | VentureBeat |
Funding history
| Date | Round | Amount | Valuation | Investors | Source |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Jun 2021 | Series E | US$125M (about C$154M), all equity | Above US$1B | Goldman Sachs Asset Management (sole investor) | BetaKit |
Visier timeline
Key dates from the sources on this page, oldest first. Metric snapshots are listed after the funding events.
- 2010 — Visier is founded in Vancouver by John Schwarz (CEO) and Ryan Wong.
- Jun 2021 — Series E: US$125M (about C$154M), all equity, valuing the company at Above US$1B. Investors: Goldman Sachs Asset Management (sole investor).
- June 2021 — Total funding: About US$219.5 million (reported).
Investors
Overview
Visier makes people analytics software: tools that help companies understand their workforce using data. Instead of HR teams pulling reports from several systems and stitching them together in spreadsheets, Visier brings the data together and answers questions like who is likely to leave, where hiring is falling behind, how pay compares across groups, and which teams are growing fastest. Managers and executives can explore the answers themselves rather than waiting for a custom report.
The company was founded in Vancouver in 2010 by John Schwarz and Ryan Wong. Both had previously been senior leaders at Business Objects, a business intelligence software company acquired by SAP. That background shaped Visier's approach: apply the ideas of business intelligence specifically to workforce data, with ready-made analysis rather than a blank toolkit.
What people analytics means in practice
Most large organizations have their employee data spread across several systems: a core HR system, payroll, recruiting software, learning platforms and performance management tools. Each system has its own reports, but answering cross-cutting questions is hard. "Are we losing high performers in engineering faster than we can hire them, and is pay a factor?" needs data from at least four places.
People analytics platforms like Visier connect those systems, clean and organise the data, and present it in a way business leaders can use. The value is in faster, better decisions about hiring, retention, pay equity and workforce planning. As labour costs are often a company's largest expense, even small improvements can be worth a lot.
Funding history
Visier's best-known round is its Series E in June 2021: US$125 million, about C$154 million, raised entirely from Goldman Sachs Asset Management. It was an all-equity round with a single investor, which is unusual at that size. Visier said the round valued it at more than US$1 billion and described itself as the first independent vendor in its category to reach that level. That "first" claim comes from the company, so treat it as its own description rather than an independently verified fact.
Reports put Visier's total funding at about US$219.5 million after the round. The company said it would use the money for product development and to expand its go-to-market efforts. VentureBeat reported a headcount of about 417 at the time.
A single growth investor writing the whole round is a meaningful signal. Goldman Sachs' growth equity arm typically invests in companies with substantial recurring revenue and a clear path to scale. Choosing one large partner rather than a syndicate also simplifies governance for the company.
Revenue: what's public
Visier hasn't published its revenue or ARR, and we haven't found a reliable company-reported figure. It sells subscription software to medium and large enterprises, usually on multi-year contracts, so its revenue is predominantly recurring. Contract sizes in enterprise HR analytics can be substantial, but without customer counts or average contract values we can't produce a reliable estimate, so we show it as not disclosed.
If you need a working number for a specific purpose, the approaches in our guide on estimating private company revenue apply, especially headcount-based estimates using benchmarks for enterprise software companies.
Business model and go-to-market
Visier sells to HR leaders and, increasingly, to business executives who want workforce insight. It also partners with larger HR software vendors. Embedding analytics inside other companies' HR products lets Visier reach customers it might not win through direct sales alone, and it turns potential competitors into distribution partners. This kind of "embedded" model is common in data and analytics software and can make growth more capital-efficient.
Enterprise sales cycles are long, often several months, and involve HR, IT, security and finance stakeholders. Once deployed, though, analytics platforms become part of how leaders run the business, which helps retention. That's why net revenue retention is a key metric for companies like Visier, even though it hasn't published its own figure.
Competitive landscape
People analytics is contested by several kinds of players:
- Large HR suites that include their own analytics modules.
- General business intelligence tools that companies can configure for workforce data.
- Specialist people analytics vendors, of which Visier is among the best known.
- In-house data teams building their own dashboards on data warehouses.
Visier's argument against all of these is depth: years of pre-built workforce metrics, benchmarks and analysis that would be slow and expensive to recreate. The arrival of generative AI adds a new dimension. Natural-language questions about workforce data are a natural fit for AI assistants, and every vendor in the space is racing to offer them. Visier's large, structured workforce data models are an advantage for building accurate AI features.
Why Visier matters for Vancouver
When Visier passed US$1 billion in 2021, BCBusiness counted it among a cluster of Vancouver tech companies reaching that milestone in a short period. Along with Clio and Trulioo, it's part of a group showing that Vancouver can produce large enterprise software companies, not just smaller startups. Its founders' earlier success with Business Objects is also a good example of experienced Canadian founders returning to build again.
What to watch next
Like many companies that last raised in 2021, Visier's next major event is the most informative one to watch: a new funding round, an acquisition, a private equity transaction or an IPO. Each would reset its valuation and tell the market how investors now value HR analytics. Product announcements around AI assistants for workforce questions, and new partnerships with large HR software vendors, are the other signals to follow.
Keep an eye on the broader HR software market too. Large HR suites have been acquiring analytics and AI capabilities, and consolidation in the category could make specialist leaders like Visier attractive acquisition targets.
Key facts at a glance
Visier is a Vancouver people analytics software company founded in 2010 by John Schwarz and Ryan Wong, both formerly of Business Objects. In June 2021 it raised a US$125 million Series E entirely from Goldman Sachs Asset Management at a valuation above US$1 billion, bringing total funding to about US$219.5 million. It had about 417 employees at the time.
What this means if you're…
Selling to Visier: a data-heavy enterprise software company buys data infrastructure, security and compliance tools, AI and machine learning capabilities, and enterprise sales support.
An HR or people leader: when comparing analytics options, ask how each one connects to your existing HR systems, how long setup takes, and how it handles data privacy for sensitive employee information.
An investor or analyst: Visier is a useful reference point for valuing HR and analytics software, especially alongside companies with disclosed revenue in our Canadian unicorns list.
Latest developments (October 2026)
Vancouver-based Visier has not announced new funding since its 2021 Series E. The people analytics company continues to add AI features to its workforce planning tools and to build data connections with HR platforms, as competitors such as Workday add similar features. See our HR tech guide.
Sources
Every figure on this page comes from the public sources below. Where sources disagreed, we used the company's own announcement or a primary news report. Private-company data changes; check the date beside each figure.
Frequently asked questions
What does Visier do?
Visier is a hr technology / people analytics software company headquartered in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada. It was founded in 2010.
What is Visier's valuation?
Visier was valued at Above US$1 billion as of June 2021, according to Visier press release. Private company valuations are set at funding rounds or share sales and can change significantly between them.
How much revenue does Visier make?
Visier is a private company and has not publicly disclosed its revenue. Figures on third-party sites are usually modelled estimates rather than numbers reported by the company.
What was Visier's latest funding round?
The most recent financing we have verified is a series e in Jun 2021: US$125M (about C$154M), all equity, at a valuation of Above US$1B. Source: BetaKit.
Who are Visier's investors?
Investors named in public announcements include Goldman Sachs Asset Management.
Who founded Visier?
Visier was founded in 2010 by John Schwarz (CEO) and Ryan Wong.
Is Visier a public company?
No. Visier is a private company (private, venture and growth-equity backed), so its shares are not traded on a stock exchange and it isn't required to publish its financial results.
Where is Visier headquartered?
Visier is headquartered in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada. See our guide to raising money in Canada for context on the Vancouver startup ecosystem.