Workpay is a Kenyan payroll management platform for businesses with employees across Africa. The startup is modeled after big HR solution firms like Rippling and Gusto. However, what is different about Workpay is that it makes payroll management in Africa easier.
It serves two types of customers, according to Tech Crunch. They include local businesses with 20-100 employees operating within a single jurisdiction, like a manufacturer in Nigeria or a grocery shop in Kenya, and businesses with 100 to 1,000 cross-border employees, such as a company in Uganda hiring in South Africa. For the first type, Workpay helps these local businesses manage their workforce by providing HR and payroll solutions. For those businesses with 100 to 1,000 cross-border employees, it helps ensure employee compliance across different markets, the founders said to Tech Crunch.
“The shift in customer needs has pushed us to expand our product from being a solid payroll solution to offering a more full-stack HR service. We’ve also noticed an opportunity to layer financial services on top of our HR offerings,” said Paul Kimani, who founded Workpay with COO Jackson Kungu.
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“Since companies already use us to pay their employees, we can now provide added services like medical and vehicle insurance and even partner with providers for lending, savings, and investment options. This way, we offer a more comprehensive solution that meets the broader needs of our customers and their employees.”
Workpay recently raised $5 million in Series A funding led by Pan-African venture capital firm Norrsken22 with new participation from Visa and Plug n Play as well as a bunch of re-ups from current investors, according to Tech Crunch.
Visa’s involvement in the funding round follows the global payments giant’s launch of its fintech accelerator. It selected 23 startups for its inaugural cohort and provided mentorship, training, and funding through its partners.
So far, only Workpay has publicly secured funding from Visa upon completing the program. “After the program, I think they invested depending on how they see a startup from a strategic and growth perspective,” Kimani said.
Indeed, Workpay has added nearly 500 businesses to its platform in the past 16 months and now serves more than 1,000 customers across 20 African countries. Also, it says its revenue grew 1.5x in the first six months of 2024 and is on course to double by the end of the year.
So far, it has received almost $10 million in funding since its launch in 2019. The recent round follows a $2.7 million pre-Series A round last year and a $2.1 million seed round in 2020. Workpay said it will use the new funding to add more financial products to its platforms and improve its performance management tools with AI.
