Workplace platform Rippling opens regional HQ in Sydney

Comprehensive workplace management platform Rippling has opened a new regional headquarters in Sydney as it plots an expansion throughout the Asia-Pacific region.

The US-based cloud platform has already hired 35 local staff, including Matt Loop, the former vice president for Asia at Slack, who will lead local operations.

"There's a combination of sales, marketing payroll experts, customer success, and really kind of everything that we need to look after customers that were already using Rippling before I even started, and what's an ever-growing customer base," Mr Loop told AAP.

Rippling, Mr Loop explained, was born out of founder Parker Conrad's belief that software has been built wrong for the past 20 years or so, with a narrow focus or "point solution."

"What Rippling has set out to be was this compound company ... that's bringing everything together all-in-one, and there's a ton of benefit in doing so and building software that way, and a ton of value and benefit that ends up with the customers," Mr Loop said.

For example, Rippling's payroll, human resources and employee management functions all share a common user interface and look and feel, he said.

That's in contrast to other cloud-based workforce platforms that rely on third-party integrations to manage different functions.

"There's no other providers out there that are doing what we do, and certainly not with the breadth of what we cover."

Customer demand is part of the reason for Rippling's expansion into Australia, which Mr Loop described as obviously a huge and exciting market.

"But it's also the challenges that employees and employers are facing - on the employee side, it's not elegant and easy to be an employee of any company and have to deal with all these different siloed systems," Mr Loop said.

On the employer side, it can be hard to remain compliant with ever-changing industrial relations rules and regulations.

"Australia has very specific and unique requirements," he added.