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THIS FRIDAY
| 💰 | HiBob's $166m round and what Salesforce is really buying | NEWS |
| 🌏 | The Wire: Vietnam's 2027 floor, Manila's frozen raise, Poland's deadline | BRIEFS |
| 🇬🇧 | Rule Watch: six dates across five countries | DATES |
| 🤖 | AI agents at work: what launched, what is regulated, what is yours | AI |
| 📋 | The Shortlist: three EORs for the Asian floors that move in January | PRODUCTS |
Reading time, about 6 minutes.
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NEWS
Salesforce just paid $166 million to sit inside HiBob
The largest round in HiBob's history closed on 1 September at a $3.2 billion valuation. Read it next to Workday's quarter and the pattern is plain: the money is chasing whoever holds the org chart.
HiBob announced a $166 million round on 1 September, led by Salesforce with Farallon Capital alongside. Bloomberg reported that Salesforce is putting in the majority of the money and that the valuation is just over $3.2 billion, up from about $2.7 billion at the last round in September 2023. Total raised now passes $700 million. The stated use of funds is acquisitions and platform expansion. The stated positioning is that Bob becomes the "organizational intelligence" layer AI agents need: the system that knows who reports to whom, who may see what, and which process runs where.
Five days earlier, Workday reported that AI products drove more than $100 million of new annual contract value in the quarter to 31 July, over 25% of all new ACV, with more than 5,500 customers using at least one Workday agent. Headcount at quarter end was 20,896, and the company credited its margin expansion to revenue growing faster than headcount.
Put those together. Neither vendor is selling you a chatbot. They are selling the permissions layer, because an agent that approves leave, changes a salary or triggers an offboarding needs a record that says whether it is allowed to. Whoever owns that record owns the account. Salesforce, which has no HRIS of its own, has now bought a seat inside one.
If you are buying. A HiBob contract signed in 2027 is a contract with a company whose largest new investor runs its own agent platform. Ask what the data-sharing terms are between Bob and Agentforce before that is settled without you. And put one question to every HRIS demo this autumn: show me the audit trail for an action an agent took in a country where the labour code says a human has to sign it. If they cannot, the AI is a feature. The record is the product.
Our HiBob review: pricing, strengths, where it falls short →
Rippling vs BambooHR, if you are weighing the alternatives →
| HOW WE GOT HERE |
| Sep 2023 | HiBob raises $150m led by Farallon and Alpha Wave at about $2.7bn. |
| 2025 | HiBob acquires Mosaic, a headcount planning and FP&A platform. Bob Finance launches in November. |
| 27 Aug 2026 | Workday: AI products over $100m of new ACV in the quarter, more than 25% of the total; 5,500+ customers on at least one agent. |
| 1 Sep 2026 | HiBob raises $166m led by Salesforce at about $3.2bn. Funds earmarked for acquisitions and platform expansion. |
| Sources: Bloomberg, Calcalist, HiBob, Workday Q2 FY27 release. |
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| AFFILIATE PARTNER |
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| Multiplier: the APAC-native EOR from $459 a month |
Singapore-headquartered, 100-plus owned entities including India, the Philippines and Australia, published pricing on its site (Core $459 per person a month billed annually, Growth $519, Enterprise custom), and employees live within 24 hours in owned-entity markets. It is still the cheapest serious EOR we have reviewed that does not run on a partner network, and still $140 a month under Deel on the entry tier. Two limitations. The $459 is not all-in: the pricing page lists compliance-mandated add-ons and an implementation fee "as applicable", and monthly billing runs about 8% higher, so get the total for your countries in writing. And native integrations stop at BambooHR, Greenhouse and Workday, so finance teams on QuickBooks, Xero or NetSuite reconcile payroll by hand. Confirm Vietnam is an owned-entity market before you rely on the 24-hour figure, and get the FX markup in writing by currency pair. If you are choosing between it and Remote, we have run that comparison. |
| See Multiplier pricing → Read the full review |
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Three things that change a number on your payroll, in under a minute each.
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🇻🇳 Vietnam: 7.8% from January, and the cost stack moves further
On 16 July the National Wage Council agreed to recommend an average 7.8% rise in the regional minimum wage from 1 January 2027, decree pending. Region I (Hanoi, HCMC, Hai Phong, Da Nang) goes from VND 5,310,000 to VND 5,700,000. Add the 21.5% employer SHUI and the 2% union fee and a floor-rate hire moves from VND 6,558,850 to VND 7,039,500 a month, our calculation. The unemployment insurance cap, fixed at 20 times the floor, rises with it and touches your better-paid staff too. The full cost stack → · Best EOR in Vietnam → · Market salaries by role →
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🇵🇭 Manila: the ₱85 wage order is law, and frozen
Wage Order NCR-27 raised the Metro Manila daily minimum from ₱695 to ₱755 on 25 July, with a second ₱25 step due 20 January 2027. On 30 July a Pasig court issued a restraining order, on 13 August a preliminary injunction, and on 26 August the Supreme Court asked the parties to comment on a petition against those orders. So ₱755 is neither repealed nor enforceable. If your EOR paid the ₱60 on 25 July, that is gone; if it did not and the injunction lifts, back pay runs from 25 July plus overtime, night differential and 13th month at the higher rate. Ask which position yours took and whether the difference sits accrued on your invoice. The court sequence is in Mercans' alert; if you are hiring there without an entity, start with our EOR rankings by country →
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🇵🇱 Poland: a decision by 15 September, and the unions want 5,200
The government's 2027 minimum wage proposal is PLN 4,950 gross, up 3% on this year's PLN 4,806. Unions asked for PLN 5,200. The Social Dialogue Council did not agree, which means the Council of Ministers sets it by regulation on or before 15 September. Around 3 million workers are on the statutory minimum, and severance and several benefit caps index to it. Model both numbers until the regulation is published. Bloomberg Tax on the proposal.
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| Poland 2027 minimum wage fixed by the Council of Ministers; proposal PLN 4,950 | by 15 Sep 2026 |
| United Kingdom Employment tribunal time limit for most claims rises from three months to six (Pinsent Masons timeline) | 1 Oct 2026 |
| Japan Prefectural minimum wages step up on a ¥1,176 national guideline (+¥55); dates vary by prefecture (Mercans) | from 1 Oct 2026 |
| United Kingdom Employment Rights Act package: union access and recognition, industrial action protections, harassment duties | 30 Oct 2026 |
| Mexico First step of the 48 to 40-hour week: weekly cap falls to 46 hours, no pay reduction permitted (Baker McKenzie) | 1 Jan 2027 |
| United Kingdom Cap on unfair dismissal compensation removed; six-month qualifying period applies | 1 Jan 2027 |
Filled pill: confirmed date. Outlined pill: proposal or still being fixed.
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AI agents at work: what launched, what is regulated, what is yours
A model built to run for hours without a human shipped on Tuesday. The EU rule for using one on workers starts in December 2027. The gap in between is your responsibility, not the vendor's.
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LAUNCHED · 1 SEPTEMBER
Anthropic released Claude Fable 5.1, positioned for jobs that take hours and span applications: clearing a backlog, picking up requests tagged in Slack, running as a managed agent with nobody watching. Anthropic says typical workloads cost about 25% less than Fable 5, up to 45% less on long agentic runs. Expect the same model class inside Deel, Workday and HiBob agents within months. Anthropic's announcement
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REGULATED · EU, DATES THAT MOVED AND DATES THAT DIDN'T
Moved: the AI Act's high-risk duties for tools that recruit, rank, promote, monitor or dismiss workers, from 2 August 2026 to 2 December 2027, under the Digital Omnibus in force since 27 July. Did not move: Article 50 transparency, in force since 2 August 2026, so a candidate talking to an agent must be told it is one. And the Article 4 AI literacy duty, in force since 2 February 2025. Freshfields' summary
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YOUR JOB · AS THE DEPLOYER
Human oversight, worker notification and logging are obligations on the company using the tool, not the company selling it. "AI Act ready" on a pricing page transfers none of them. Outside the EU the clock is shorter: Colorado's rewritten AI law starts 1 January 2027 and its labor department filed draft rules on 11 August. Three questions for any vendor demo: who can override the agent, where is the log, and which country's rule did it apply? Epstein Becker Green on the US patchwork
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Three EORs for a Vietnam or Philippines hire before the January floors move. Platform fee only; statutory employer contributions sit on top with all three. Full rankings: Vietnam · India · all countries.
Multiplier · EOR from $459 a month, billed annually
Good for: APAC-first teams that want published tiered pricing and a live employee inside 24 hours in owned-entity markets.
Falls short: no QuickBooks, Xero or NetSuite connection, and reviewers report FX markups as high as 8% in some corridors.
Review · Multiplier vs Oyster
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 Deel · EOR from $599 a month Good for: teams on NetSuite, Xero or QuickBooks who need payroll cost synced, with 250 owned entities behind the contract. Falls short: a refundable deposit of 1 to 1.5 times monthly cost that is not on the pricing page, and chatbot routing in front of human support at standard tier. Review · Deel vs Remote
 Remofirst · EOR from $199 a month Good for: a first one to five hires where budget decides, with a named account manager at every tier and no deposit. Falls short: a partner network rather than owned entities, and payroll errors past 30 to 50 employees that take weeks to fix. Review · Or Pebl at $399
| ATTRIBUTE | Multiplier | Deel | Remofirst |
| Platform fee | $459 annual, add-ons apply | $599 plus deposit | $199, no deposit |
| Entity model | 100+ owned, some partner | 250 owned | Partner network |
| Onboarding | Under 24h in owned markets | 2 to 5 days | 5 to 7 business days |
| Accounting integrations | None native | QuickBooks, Xero, NetSuite | None native |
Links may be affiliate links. These three are editorial picks and cannot be bought. Paid placements appear below, marked Featured.
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| STAT | $100 million, the new annual contract value Workday says its AI products produced in the quarter to 31 July, more than a quarter of the total. Workday |
| QUOTE | The revised ERA timeline, per Pinsent Masons' Sue Gilchrist, does "not give employers much room to ease off their preparations." Out-Law |
| READ | Mexico's 40-hour reform adds an obligation to keep electronic records of every employee's start and end times. Norton Rose Fulbright has the phasing. Read |
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Tuesday: Poland's number if it lands, the Supreme Court on NCR-27, and what an HRIS should show you before you let an agent touch payroll.
If someone on your team signs off international hires, forward this to them.
Manjuri Dutta, Editor
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