Aquiline Pushes Deeper Into HR Tech With CoAdvantage–PrimePay Merger
Aquiline Capital Partners is reshuffling the HR tech deck. The private equity firm has completed the merger of two of its portfolio companies—CoAdvantage, a Professional Employer Organization (PEO), and PrimePay, a payroll and HR software vendor—in a strategic move designed to create an all-in-one human capital management (HCM) powerhouse.
The deal signals Aquiline’s intent to double down on a blended-service model that offers both self-service software and fully outsourced HR support. For businesses drowning in fragmented HR systems—or stuck choosing between pure software or full-service PEOs—this merger aims to offer the best of both worlds.
Why This Merger Matters
For starters, it’s rare to see a PEO like CoAdvantage merge with a payroll software vendor like PrimePay. Most players in this space tend to stay in their lanes: software-as-a-service (SaaS) providers like Gusto and Rippling focus on scalability and UX; PEOs like TriNet and ADP TotalSource sell hands-on service and risk mitigation. By combining these two models, the newly unified firm wants to bridge that gap.
“Clients’ businesses are ever-evolving,” said Joe Pappalardo, Partner at Aquiline. “Our newly combined capabilities in the payroll and HR technology market serve as a solution to their needs.” Translation: business owners want flexibility, and Aquiline is betting that modular, integrated HCM solutions will win the day.
What’s in the Box?
The combined entity now offers everything from standalone payroll to fully outsourced HR, benefits administration, risk management, and even insurance. For SMBs and mid-market companies, that means a single provider can now cover both tactical needs (like processing payroll) and strategic functions (like managing compliance and offering benefits at scale).
“We can now offer a full range of self and full-service solutions,” said CEO John Cumbee, who will continue to lead the new venture. “Customers will have access to both platforms and can take advantage of our expanded HCM expertise.”
That sounds good on paper, but execution will be key. Integrating platforms, aligning customer service, and avoiding tech bloat will be major challenges. In the HR tech world, convenience matters—but seamlessness is king.
The Bigger Picture in HR Tech
This merger comes at a time when the HR tech landscape is heating up. Companies like Deel, Rippling, and Paycom are rapidly adding features beyond payroll—like global hiring, compliance automation, and financial wellness tools. Meanwhile, traditional PEOs are under pressure to modernize their offerings or risk losing market share to nimble SaaS disruptors.
By combining CoAdvantage’s service infrastructure with PrimePay’s technology suite, Aquiline appears to be building a hybrid model that can scale with clients’ needs. Whether that’s enough to outpace more agile, VC-backed startups remains to be seen.
Still, for existing clients of either brand, this merger likely means more features, more flexibility, and—hopefully—not more headaches.
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