The people
What they build
Open roles via the TechTO Job Board
Working at Barley
Browse open roles across the community on the TechTO Job Board — Canada’s most connected tech network. Barley’s roles show up here whenever they post.
Open roles on the TechTO Job Board ↗Or their own careers page: barley.io/careers ↗Jobs live on jobs.techto.org — the only structured source. We link to it rather than scraping career sites, so the board is always the source of truth.
About
Barley sold software for the part of HR that usually lives in a spreadsheet: pay bands, pay structures, compensation reviews and the analysis behind them. Jafar Owainati founded it in 2021 with Billy Mainguy, formerly chief product officer at Reelhouse. Owainati had co-founded Loopio, the Toronto company that automates RFP and security-questionnaire responses, and had bootstrapped it to 35 staff and more than 250 customers by the time he spoke at TechTO in 2017. Barley raised $5.4 million CAD from Toronto's Golden Ventures and Union Capital before officially launching in 2023. Workleap — the Montreal HR platform, itself backed by a $125-million CAD investment from CDPQ — acquired Barley in a deal announced on 7 July 2025, its third acquisition. Financial terms were not disclosed; chief executive Simon De Baene declined to give them. The six-person Barley team, both founders included, joined Workleap, and BetaKit reported the plan was to have Barley's compensation features available inside the Workleap platform by that October. barley.io now serves Workleap's compensation product page.
Backers
Golden Ventures and Union Capital, both Toronto, funded the $5.4-million CAD round that preceded launch. Acquired by Workleap, announced 7 July 2025; terms undisclosed.
More from TechTO ×2
Quick answers
What did Barley do?
It sold compensation-management software: structuring pay bands, analyzing pay data and running compensation reviews for growing companies.
Who founded Barley?
Jafar Owainati, who co-founded Loopio, and Billy Mainguy, previously chief product officer at Reelhouse, in 2021.
What happened to Barley?
Workleap acquired it in a deal announced 7 July 2025. Terms were not disclosed. The six-person team joined Workleap and the product was folded into Workleap's platform.
How much did Barley raise?
$5.4 million CAD from Golden Ventures and Union Capital, before it launched publicly in 2023.