Seattle startup Boundless Immigration in the present day announced its acquisition of Localyze, a Berlin-based firm that primarily serves individuals immigrating to international locations in Europe. Phrases of the deal weren’t disclosed.
The timing is especially useful because the Trump administration continues to tighten restrictions on U.S. immigration. President Trump most lately announced plans for a brand new $100,000 price for H-1B visas utilized by tech firms to rent gifted overseas staff in software program engineering, knowledge science and different STEM fields.
“This acquisition suits completely with what our prospects are asking for in an period of unprecedented uncertainty and elevated chaos and turmoil about varied U.S. insurance policies,” mentioned Boundless CEO Xiao Wang.
Boundless has primarily centered on people and companies navigating the immigration course of for coming to the U.S. as workers, college students or relations. The acquisition considerably will increase its geographic footprint.
“We’ve been taking a look at other ways of increasing our world attain,” Wang instructed GeekWire.
Company purchasers have workplaces world wide and it’s a lot easier for them to work via one platform in serving to workers safe work and different visas, he mentioned. The startup has beforehand partnered with legislation agency internationally in addressing these wants.
Localyze gives comparable providers to these supplied by Boundless for individuals immigrating to greater than 30 international locations together with the U.S., United Kingdom, Germany, France, Spain, Portugal, Switzerland, Netherlands, Austria, Belgium, Lithuania, Poland, Australia and United Arab Emirates.
The German firm’s immigration platform and its 40-person crew will probably be built-in into Boundless operations.
“Our mission has all the time been to assist firms construct world-class groups by eradicating the geographic boundaries to expertise,” mentioned Hanna Asmussen, CEO and co-founder Localyze, in a press release. “Becoming a member of Boundless is the quickest solution to obtain that mission on a world scale.”
Discussions about an acquisition have been underway for greater than a yr, Wang mentioned.
Employers are more and more interested by taking a look at different choices, resembling hiring and basing staff at worldwide workplaces outdoors of America to keep away from immigration uncertainty, he mentioned. Folks nonetheless wanting to reside and work within the U.S. are anxious to discover completely different visa pathways to expedite their path to citizenship.
Boundless spun out of Pioneer Sq. Labs in 2017. This marks its third acquisition; it beforehand purchased San Francisco-based Bridge in 2023 and RapidVisa in 2020. The startup has raised greater than $50 million from traders and had greater than 500 workers pre-acquisition.
Localyze launched in 2018, participated in Y Combinator the subsequent yr, and has raised greater than $47 million, in line with PitchBook.
Seattle can be residence to the immigration startup Casium, which launched out of the AI2 Incubator final yr.
Wang mentioned Boundless is hardwired to reply to adjustments and make the most effective of them — together with tumultuous public insurance policies.
“We now have now simply added a complete continent of alternatives and choices for individuals to select from to reside their finest life,” Wang mentioned, “and that’s basically so thrilling.”
