BetterComp Raises $33M Series A to Lead the Next Wave of Compensation Intelligence
August 5, 2025
byFenoms Start-Ups
BetterComp, the HR tech company reinventing how modern organizations manage, plan, and benchmark compensation, just closed a $33 million Series A round led by Ten Coves Capital. With co-founders Alan Miegel, Sandra Leon, Derek Watson, and Derek Schlicker at the helm, the startup is gaining traction as the go-to platform for dynamic, real-time, and equitable compensation management.
In an era where pay transparency is no longer optional, and companies are under increased scrutiny to deliver fair, data-backed compensation decisions, BetterComp is emerging as the tool that HR teams not only need - but actually want.
From Spreadsheets to Strategic Infrastructure
Most companies still rely on legacy tools - or worse, spreadsheets - to manage comp cycles, evaluate pay equity, and build compensation bands. It’s manual, error-prone, and wildly inefficient. Even companies with sophisticated HRIS stacks are often missing one thing: a dedicated, purpose-built platform for comp strategy.
BetterComp’s platform steps in as a full-stack solution for managing:
- Salary benchmarking
- Real-time market data integration
- Equity planning
- Pay transparency compliance
- Global comp cycles
Unlike platforms that only focus on one piece of the comp puzzle, BetterComp is building a single source of truth for all things compensation - bridging data, strategy, and execution with stunning simplicity.
Why the Compensation Layer Is Becoming a Competitive Moat
Here’s a key insight most early-stage founders miss:
“In high-talent markets, your compensation intelligence layer isn’t just a tool - it’s your moat.”
Compensation is now a frontline experience. It's no longer handled quietly behind closed doors. It’s debated on Slack, compared on Glassdoor, and negotiated over Zoom. When employees feel misaligned on pay, trust erodes. When candidates get vague answers about pay bands, they ghost.
BetterComp’s edge is that it’s not just a tool for HR - it’s a strategic asset for retention, compliance, and culture. The product isn’t just reactive (running reports); it’s proactive - surfacing discrepancies, modeling what-if scenarios, and preparing comp teams for every salary review, equity refresh, or board comp committee meeting.
In a market where top talent has options, precision in pay isn't a perk - it’s table stakes. And BetterComp is the stack that enables it.
Ten Coves Backs the Future of Intelligent HR Ops
The Series A, led by Ten Coves Capital, signals growing investor appetite for next-gen infrastructure in HR tech - especially around compensation, a historically underserved slice of the stack.
Ten Coves, known for their fintech and enterprise SaaS bets, sees BetterComp not just as a comp tool, but as a system-of-record for financial HR decision-making. This aligns with a bigger trend: as CFOs and CHROs work more closely together, tools like BetterComp offer the shared visibility they both need to make high-stakes, high-impact decisions.
Sources familiar with the raise suggest the funds will go toward product acceleration, scaling go-to-market, and deepening integrations with major HRIS players like Workday, SAP, and BambooHR.
Meet the Founders: A Dream Team for Comp Infrastructure
The leadership behind BetterComp is as calibrated as their product:
- Alan Miegel, CEO, brings decades of HR tech and enterprise SaaS experience
- Sandra Leon, CCO, leads customer success and strategic partnerships with empathy-first execution
- Derek Watson and Derek Schlicker, both with deep technical and operational expertise, have built scalable systems inside high-growth orgs
Together, this team understands the pain points of HR teams inside and out - and they’re translating that into a UI that’s clean, a UX that’s powerful, and a backend built for scale.
Why the CompTech Wave Is Just Getting Started
The compensation tech market - sometimes called “CompTech” - is heating up fast. And it’s not hard to see why.
A few stats to anchor the moment:
- According to Mercer, over 72% of organizations now say they’re actively reviewing pay equity at least once a year - double from just three years ago
- Gartner reports that compensation transparency is among the top three priorities for CHROs in 2025, alongside AI readiness and workforce planning
- Meanwhile, California, Colorado, and New York now mandate salary range disclosures - driving the need for real-time comp clarity across roles and geos
Add to that the global shift toward remote work, and suddenly your pay bands aren’t just compared locally - they’re compared everywhere. Organizations are under pressure to justify pay decisions and build comp policies that scale across cities, countries, and job levels.
BetterComp is uniquely positioned to meet that moment - offering live benchmarking, workflow automation, and transparency tooling in one unified platform.
What’s Next for BetterComp
With Series A funding in hand, BetterComp is aiming high. Near-term priorities include:
- Launching advanced equity calibration tools for startups and public companies
- Expanding international market data coverage for global enterprises
- Strengthening integrations with finance and payroll systems for deeper visibility
- Rolling out AI-powered audit features to detect inequities and pay compression in real time
- Hiring across engineering, partnerships, customer education, and compliance
Insiders also hint at early talks with strategic partners in benefits and total rewards, suggesting that BetterComp could evolve into a full-spectrum compensation command center.
Final Take: Compensation Is the New UX
The bottom line? BetterComp isn’t just building a product - it’s redefining a category. As the future of work becomes more transparent, cross-border, and employee-driven, the tools we use to manage compensation must evolve too.
And for founders watching this space:
Your comp strategy isn’t back-office anymore - it’s your brand.
The smarter your stack, the stronger your signal to top talent.
BetterComp gets that. And now - with $33M to scale - they’re ready to make compensation management smarter, sharper, and finally future-ready.