In 1996, two companies, Patersons HR and Payroll Solutions, formed a venture called CloudPay to provide payroll and payments services to enterprise clients. CloudPay grew quietly over the next several decades, adding workflow automation features to maintain pace with upstart rivals.
It’s still growing, CFO Andy Thomson assures TechCrunch.
Thomson claims that CloudPay is handling the payroll processes of 280 firms including Visa, Wayfair, Wells Fargo, Expedia and The London Stock Exchange, processing more than 3 million pay slips a year in over 130 countries.
“CloudPay is sitting at contracted revenue of $125 million,” Thomson said. “Over the last three years, we have more than doubled revenue.”
Now, the company has landed a new $120 million funding round led by Blue Owl Capital to continue accelerating that growth. Bringing its total raised to $228 million, the round values CloudPay “significantly higher” than the company’s last round in October 2022, Thomson said.
“In an environment of constant change, customer expectations are shifting, too,” he said. “They expect more. In the world’s on-demand culture, traditional payroll doesn’t always fit, so we’ve evolved payroll to fit new demands. Compliance and legislation have gotten more complex and varied country to country as well.”
Today, CloudPay offers a range of global payroll, salary payments and pay-on-demand services. Payroll professionals get real-time reports and customizable dashboards, while finance teams get a choice of funding and pay options localized to employees.
The competition for payroll software hasn’t gotten any less stiff. There are startups like Y Combinator-backed Workpay, Symmetrical.ai, Payroll Integrations and Skuad, which was just this week acquired by fintech Payoneer. Indeed, my colleague Mary Ann has written about how it seems that practically every startup these days wants to help people get paid.
With a workforce of 1,350 people and offices across Raleigh, Budapest, Shanghai, Costa Rica, Barcelona and elsewhere, CloudPay plans to put the proceeds from its latest fundraise toward bringing on new integrated partners and investing in automation and AI tech.
“CloudPay’s innovation in technology has been a significant focus for us this year, and with this round of funding, we can accelerate our timeline,” Thomson said. “We expect to make AI announcements later this year.”
Rho Capital Partners, The Olayan Group and Hollyport Capital also contributed to CloudPay’s newest tranche.
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