Khosla’s Keith Rabois backs Comp, which seeks to empower HR teams with AI

After graduating from Cornell University, Christophe Gerlach spent nearly two years investing exclusively in HR tech startup General Atlantic. Investing was fun, but Gerlach was eager to get back into business.

While at Cornell, Gerlach (pictured above, right) built and sold a food delivery startup alongside fellow student Pedro Bobrow (pictured above, left), a native of Brazil. Then in late 2022, Gerlach and Bobrow (former product manager at Lyft) reunited, combining their industry expertise and cultural roots to launch Com, an HR tech startup focused on Brazil.

Comp creates AI-powered HR software that can help with tasks like recruiting, setting compensation policies and designing performance review programs. The startup also provides “front-loaded” experts — former HR managers — who work with clients to develop compensation, performance, and recruiting strategies.

Although Brazilian companies often hire compensation consultants, Gerlach says that their frontline HR managers should not be viewed as consultants, but as extensions of existing HR teams.

These managers also play an important role in refining Com technology. “Our front-end distributed HR staff does all the work manually at first, and then uses that work to train the AI ​​how to think about best practices,” Gerlach said.

The idea, of course, is that eventually, Comp’s AI agents will be fully autonomous and able to perform common HR tasks.

While Comp currently offers AI-powered HR services augmented by experts, its goal is to eliminate both traditional communication and HR software. As Gerlach puts it: “Rippling sells software to small HR teams to make them more productive. We become an HR team.”

To that end, Comp this week raised a $17.25 billion Series A round led by Khosla Ventures, marking the VC firm’s first investment in a Brazilian company. Khosla’s general partner Keith Rabois has joined Comp’s board of directors as part of the deal.

Comp positions itself as an alternative AI to traditional compensation consultancies like Mercer, Korn Ferry, and Willis Towers Watson. It also competes with global HR platforms such as Rippling and Workday.

Gerlach says that Comp was launched in Brazil because many companies in the country do not have traditional HR software, which has allowed the startup to introduce a new, automated model rather than competing with established platforms.

The business model seems to be already gaining traction in Brazil: its clients include Nubank, QuintoAndar, Creditas, and “pretty much every Brazilian unicorn,” Gerlach said. The startup is now looking to expand in the US and other countries.

Other investors in Comp’s Series A include existing backers Kaszek and Canary, as well as new investors Abstract Ventures and Endeavor Catalyst.