Deel to Acquire Africa-Focused Payroll Firm PaySpace

Hiring and payroll platform Deel is set to acquire payroll and HR firm PaySpace.

“Our team looked at many global payroll players, and PaySpace emerged as the best of the best,” Deel Co-founder and CEO Alex Bouaziz said in a company blog post Tuesday (March 5).

Operating in 44 countries across the Middle East and Africa (MEA), PaySpace has more than 14,000 customers, including Heineken, Coca-Cola and Puma Sports, according to the post.

“The payroll industry wasn’t built global-first,” Bouaziz said in the post. “Companies have, over time, developed or bought up local engines and stitched together systems to market them as global. This results in payroll errors and delays, poor workforce experience, even compliance issues. Not until the world of work became more global did HR leaders start realizing payroll systems aren’t cutting it. Global payroll is critical to get right, yet hard to do well.”

By acquiring PaySpace, he added, Deel gives its customers greater coverage as well as faster and more flexible payroll, while also allowing PaySpace to expand beyond the MEA region.

PYMNTS last month examined the complexity of payroll management, noting that it “involves more than just disbursing employee wages.”

The complexity gets more intense “when faced with a flood of payroll-related inquiries, a challenge that traditional methods such as conventional contact centers, language lines and employee information portals have struggled to adequately tackle,” the report said.

In addition, the time-consuming nature of these tasks can take resources away from other aspects of business operations, hampering growth and productivity.

“As businesses strive to stay competitive in today’s fast-paced environment, the need for more efficient and streamlined payroll solutions has become increasingly apparent,” PYMNTS wrote. “It’s a gap that digital tools and advanced technologies are helping to fill, helping businesses save time, avoid costly mistakes and enhance the overall employee experience.”

For example, payroll giant ADP, which serves more than 1 million customers worldwide, joined forces with AWS to unveil ADP Assist, a generative artificial intelligence-powered cross-platform tool that enhances guidance for employees and managers.

“We’ve created a platform that understands the complexities and dynamics of modern HR management and offers smart, user-centric solutions,” Sreeni Kutam, president of global product and innovation at ADP, said in January. “And, as always, we are committed to the secure and ethical use of data to support these technologies.”

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