Payroll Startup PayFit Lands $79M

Payroll startup PayFit has announced $79 million in new funding, according to reports Monday (June 17).

The France-based company secured the funding from Eurazeo and Bpifrance, which are backing PayFit’s payroll and human resource management technology services designed for multiple European countries’ particular labor laws. Its Software-as-a-Service offering automates pay slip generation, emailing workers when their pay stubs are ready.

Small businesses using the platform can manage employee data via web browser and easily adjust information if employees depart or receive a raise, for example. The solution also automatically informs business owners when taxes must be paid and automatically calculates tax payments while generating reports for a user’s accountant.

Its ability to offer value to small business accountants is an interesting one, considering the impact that payroll innovation and technology have had on the small business accounting profession. While technology has automated much of accountants’ traditional work, more small businesses are handing the payroll function off to their accountants, making it a potential value-add for the profession, some experts say.

So far, reports said, PayFit has rolled out its services in France, Spain, Germany and the U.K., with plans to introduce an Italian offering in the future. As the publication noted, PayFit has to build out country-specific services to account for labor laws that vary from EU member state to state. The company has 3,000 corporate customers so far.

With the new funding, PayFit said it aims to double its staff by 2020 from its current level of 300 workers.

Earlier this month Ireland-based Immedis secured $28.2 million in funding for its own payroll and tax services designed for large, multinational corporates that need to compensate staff in other markets.

Last year, Justworks raised $40 million for its payroll and human resources offerings in the U.S., while Gusto, another U.S. startup, secured $140 million, also last year, for its payroll and HR services.