What a busy week! I have been knee-deep in snow and payroll technology as two big storms hit the Northeast, and I prepare to publish our 2018 Payroll Index Report. More on that to come, but here’s a quick recap of some of the goings on of note this week – the investment in HCM tech continues!

Degreed, you get $42 million. Degreed, a learning and skill certification technology provider, announced series C funding of $42 million, as well as the replacement of their cofounder and CEO with the former COO. Degreed’s focus on helping people discover and build new skills seems primed for the gig economy, and the funding will go to building out the sales force, engineering, and continuing to build on its data science and machine learning capabilities.

And Justworks, you get $40 million. Justworks received a $40 million round of investment to support its continued product development and market share growth for its “HR technology platform for entrepreneurs who are serious about taking care of their teams.” It is an HR, payroll, benefits, compliance all-in-one solution for entrepreneurial businesses, and also offers PEO services. The all-in-one, we take care of it for you, HR back-office solution is a popular one. Justworks competes directly with offerings like Namely, Gusto, and Paycor.

Speaking of Paycor. Paycor announced the hiring of two new executives this week. Charles Cagle joins as CTO from Info, and Ryan Bergstrom moves over into the chief product officer role from Ultimate. This once regional payroll provider is bringing in serious talent. With new strength in the technical and product areas, it will be interesting to watch where they go next.

UNLEASH the next big winner. And if you’d like to know who I will be blogging about next year, check out the just-released list of finalists in the startup competition at UNLEASH in London, taking place March 20-21.

That’s all for now – have to go build a snowman.