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Andrew Bassat

This Month

Employment Hero chief Ben Thompson says Canada will become a key market for the HR software business.

Employment Hero makes $112m acquisition to break into Canada

Like the Australian software start-up, Humi makes cloud-based software which handles hiring, payroll and employee benefits for small and mid-sized businesses.

  • Updated
  • Tess Bennett

December 2024

Ben Thompson, CEO of start-up Employment Hero, says the company haa healthy cash balance.

‘Unicorn’ tech firm spent $43m to buy its founder’s other company

Heavily backed HR technology firm Employment Hero paid $43.4 million for a company owned by its co-founder Ben Thompson, a new regulatory filing has revealed.

  • Tess Bennett

October 2024

AFR composite

Chanticleer’s 10 legends of marvellous Melbourne

Melbourne has always been Chanticleer’s spiritual home. As part of the column’s 50-year celebrations, we name 10 big characters from the past five decades. 

  • James Thomson

September 2024

Jodie Haydon and Anthony Albanese take pride of place next to Andrew Dillon at the commissioner’s lunch in the Olympic Room at the MCG on Saturday.

Albo keeps it in the family at the AFL commissioner’s lunch

You can’t buy a ticket to Aussie rules’ most exclusive grand final function, so there are few better tests of relevance than trying to score an invitation.

  • Myriam Robin

April 2024

Lindsay Fox arrives at the launch of the Paula Fox Melanoma and Cancer Centre in Melbourne on Friday.

‘What Paula wants, Paula gets’: Lindsay Fox’s $152m birthday surprise

A high-profile birthday singalong broke out on billionaire Lindsay Fox’s birthday at the official opening of new $152 million Paula Fox Melanoma and Cancer Centre in Melbourne on Friday.

  • Patrick Durkin
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March 2024

Daniel Andrews, right, was health minister in 2010 under premier John Brumby.

Break or breakthrough: the red flags at Victoria’s VC fund

Breakthrough Victoria was formed after its now-chairman, John Brumby, called for the establishment of such a fund.

  • Myriam Robin

February 2024

Former Seek boss Andrew Bassat, who is also president of the St Kilda Football Club, now runs the Seek Growth Fund.

Broker pressures Seek to unlock VC fund’s $2.3b valuation

Analysts from Morgan Stanley argue the job classifieds site and VC investor should make major changes to maximise shareholders’ perception of its value.

  • Nick Bonyhady and Tom Richardson

October 2023

AFL CEO Gil McLachlan with Collingwood CEO Craig Kelly.

Embattled Richard Goyder farewells Gil McLachlan. Again

You know you’ve drawn a power crowd when not only doesn’t the prime minister get to speak, but his presence rates only a passing mention.

  • Joe Aston and Myriam Robin

April 2023

Andrew Fox with friend and golfer Greg Norman.

Bizoids bust out the tartan at court of Fox

The trucking tycoon turned 86 on Wednesday, and marked the day as extravagantly as any self-respecting billionaire could be expected to.

  • Myriam Robin

February 2022

Employment Hero founder Ben Thompson says the company is just getting started, despite becoming a billion-dollar valued “unicorn”.

New Aussie ‘unicorn’: Employment Hero scales $1.25b

After eight years building a globally successful HR, payroll and benefits platform, Employment Hero has cracked the billion-dollar valuation, raising $181m.

  • Paul Smith

October 2021

SEEK’s Andrew Bassett has taken money out of SEEK and put into into the new SEEK Growth Fund.

GS handles $48m SEEK stake for Andrew Bassat

There was some surprising selldown news out of SEEK Ltd on Thursday. 

  • Anthony Macdonald, Yolanda Redrup and Kanika Sood

September 2021

Gail Kelly photographed in 2012.

Top tips for success gleaned from leaders over 21 years of BOSS

Take time to think, learn to read people, document your week and keep learning are among the pieces of advice from Australia’s most successful business leaders.

  • Sally Patten

July 2021

Andrew Barnes, co-founder and CEO of GO1.

Brisbane’s Go1 becomes Australia’s newest ‘unicorn’ with mega-raise

The online training marketplace, founded by four former high school friends in 2015, is now worth more than $US1 billion after raising $US200 million.

  • Paul Smith

March 2021

Ben Thompson, CEO and co-founder of Employment Hero.

HR tech firm raises $45m amid remote working boom

Employment Hero has been valued at more than $250 million after a new funding round led by SEEK. It accelerated its international expansion in the pandemic.

  • Paul Smith
Andrew Bassat wants Seek Investments to help create the type of environment he wished he had when starting Seek in the late 90s.

Andrew Bassat’s billion-dollar plan for VC dominance

The Seek co-founder is stepping back from the demands of running a publicly listed company to lean into his plans to make its venture capital arm, Seek Investments, a billion-dollar giant.

  • Natasha Gillezeau
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“We’ve been gifted it, so let’s not waste it,” outgoing SEEK chief executive Andrew Bassat says.

Invest big to ‘break away from the pack’: top CEOs

Companies must reinvest in their operations and reinvent their companies more aggressively or risk squandering the advantage handed to them by Australia’s adroit management of the pandemic.

  • Lucas Baird, Sally Patten and Natasha Gillezeau

February 2021

Luke Sayers has attracted some hefty backers to his eponymous firm.

Visa platforms bidder Sayers has Liberal investor

Through Sayers Capital, a bevy of high-profile shareholders are exposed to the bid. Most noteworthy: Andrew Burnes, the former Liberal Party treasurer.

  • Myriam Robin
Seek’s new CEO Ian Narev enjoys being free of the obligations that go with being a big four bank CEO.

Seek empowers Ian Narev’s makeover

From the dumped CEO of Commonwealth Bank of Australia to boss of one of our most successful tech platforms - Ian Narev is a man remade.

  • Tony Boyd
Andrew Bassat, left, says a restructure that will see him hand the reins to Ian Narev makes sense.

Narev to Bassat: ‘Are you sure you want to do this?’

Seek’s new chief executive, Ian Narev, checked in multiple times to make sure his outgoing boss Andrew Bassat was really ready to let go of the reins. But for the latter, the timing ‘just felt right’.

  • Natasha Gillezeau and James Thomson
Outgoing SEEK chief executive Andrew Bassat, left, will be succeeded by former Commonwealth Bank chief executive Ian Narev, who joined SEEK as its chief operating officer in 2019.

SEEK eyes a split as Bassat hands reins to Narev

Co-founder Andrew Bassat is stepping down from his chief executive role to be succeeded by former Commonwealth Bank chief executive Ian Narev.

  • Updated
  • Natasha Gillezeau

Original URL: https://www.afr.com/person/andrew-bassat-1yh