In 1992 entrepreneur Steve Shelley founded Aero-Care, a small business providing maintenance services at Sydney airport. Over 15 years Steve built Aero-Care into Australia’s largest ground-handling business, with 2,000 staff servicing airlines across every major Australian airport.
Software engineer Ashik Ahmed joined Steve in 2003, charged with building an in-house scheduling product to better engage the Aero-Care shift based workforce. Over time, “Aero-net” transformed the Aero-care operations, becoming the technology backbone of the business and driving significant efficiency and scale.
After selling Aero-care to private equity in 2008, Steve and Ashik jointly launched Deputy with the aim of taking their workforce software to every business around the globe. Ashik rebuilt the product from the ground up and Deputy was launched in 2010.
Deputy experienced steady early growth. By 2014 the founders were considering external funding. Howard Leibman joined as an adviser to the founders and served as interim executive, with a remit to ready the business for a substantial financing. EVP became Deputy’s first external shareholder.
By 2016 the company had over 150,000 users and customers in over 100 countries. In December 2016 Deputy completed a US$25 million investment from Boston based OpenView Venture Partners and growth began to accelerate dramatically.
“If it wasn’t for Howard’s involvement, Deputy would not be where it is today. Certainly I would not be CEO, as it was through his guidance that I found the confidence to step-up. Today with a team of 200, we still have a way to go, but not a day goes by that I’m not grateful for Howard’s contribution to the business.” Ashik Ahmed, April 2018
By late 2018, over 1 million shift workers had used Deputy. The business had 200 staff and customers in over 100 countries. The platform was being adopted increasingly by mid-market and large enterprise customers and the product had become widely recognised as best in class. With a stated of objective of “every shift in the world on Deputy”, the company completed a Series-B capital raising of US$81M. The funding round was led by US investor Institutional Venture Partners (IVP), with participation by OpenView Venture Partners, Square Peg and EVP.
In 1992 entrepreneur Steve Shelley founded Aero-Care, a small business providing maintenance services at Sydney airport. Over 15 years Steve built Aero-Care into Australia’s largest ground-handling business, with 2,000 staff servicing airlines across every major Australian airport.
Software engineer Ashik Ahmed joined Steve in 2003, charged with building an in-house scheduling product to better engage the Aero-Care shift based workforce. Over time, “Aero-net” transformed the Aero-care operations, becoming the technology backbone of the business and driving significant efficiency and scale.
After selling Aero-care to private equity in 2008, Steve and Ashik jointly launched Deputy with the aim of taking their workforce software to every business around the globe. Ashik rebuilt the product from the ground up and Deputy was launched in 2010.
Deputy experienced steady early growth. By 2014 the founders were considering external funding. Howard Leibman joined as an adviser to the founders and served as interim executive, with a remit to ready the business for a substantial financing. EVP became Deputy’s first external shareholder.
By 2016 the company had over 150,000 users and customers in over 100 countries. In December 2016 Deputy completed a US$25 million investment from Boston based OpenView Venture Partners and growth began to accelerate dramatically.
“If it wasn’t for Howard’s involvement, Deputy would not be where it is today. Certainly I would not be CEO, as it was through his guidance that I found the confidence to step-up. Today with a team of 200, we still have a way to go, but not a day goes by that I’m not grateful for Howard’s contribution to the business.” Ashik Ahmed, April 2018
By late 2018, over 1 million shift workers had used Deputy. The business had 200 staff and customers in over 100 countries. The platform was being adopted increasingly by mid-market and large enterprise customers and the product had become widely recognised as best in class. With a stated of objective of “every shift in the world on Deputy”, the company completed a Series-B capital raising of US$81M. The funding round was led by US investor Institutional Venture Partners (IVP), with participation by OpenView Venture Partners, Square Peg and EVP.