PayFit, a leading payroll and HR management solution for SMEs, today announced that it has raised €254M in a Series E funding round, a record-breaking amount for a French human resources (HR) startup. General Atlantic, a leading global growth equity firm, led the round, with participation from existing investors Eurazeo, Bpifrance and Accel Ventures. PayFit plans to use the funds to recruit additional top talent, accelerate the development of innovative new products and increase its market share across Europe.
PayFit’s mission is to simplify payroll and HR management, which has become even more important in the context of the Covid-19 pandemic and the many complexities it has introduced for businesses in managing human capital. The company provides a leading next-gen payroll solution that automates complex and time-intensive HR processes, particularly for the underserved small and medium-sized enterprise (SME). PayFit’s proprietary technology platform enables HR managers, finance managers, and business owners to easily conduct payroll calculations in markets with complex regulatory requirements, which is a key differentiator amidst the fast-growing HR technology market.
Since its founding in 2015, PayFit has gained over 6,000 clients, and has raised €179M to date, prior to this funding round. Its €90M Series D funding round, which closed in March, supported the company in the continued innovation of its current product suite and hiring of 300 new employees, reinforcing its leadership in the European HR tech sector. Based in France, PayFit has successfully expanded into three additional major European markets – Germany, Spain, and the United Kingdom – and plans to scale from more than 700 current employees to over 1,000 within the next 12 months. The expansion of the PayFit team has included key senior leadership hires across critical business functions spanning technology, finance, operations and more.
PayFit will leverage the proceeds from its Series E round to deepen its penetration in existing markets, invest in its core automated payroll software offering, and continue to expand its SME-tailored solution across HR management by complementing leaves/absences and expenses with performance review functionality, among other features to be launched in 2022.
Firmin Zocchetto, CEO and cofounder of PayFit explains: “PayFit’s expansion beyond France into the UK, Spain and Germany demonstrated further validation of our innovative offering and our capacity to scale up. As we look ahead, we plan to use these new funds to deepen our presence in our existing markets, where we have significant growth potential. At PayFit, we are proud to have built a company with strong foundations, where people are happy to work and that can have a real impact on our clients. This Series E funding will allow us to maintain the rapid growth we have achieved since our founding.”
Chris Caulkin, managing director and head of technology for EMEA at General Atlantic, comments: “PayFit has built an innovative and disruptive product supporting the payroll and HR management needs of SMBs across Europe. We see great opportunities ahead for the company as it extends its product offering and continues to capture market share in France and across Europe. We are delighted to support PayFit and its management team in this next chapter of growth.”
PayFit marks General Atlantic’s seventh investment in France’s technology ecosystem over the last five years, a region in which the firm has strong conviction.
Philippe Botteri, partner at Accel adds: “It’s been fantastic to see Firmin, Florian and Ghislain scale the team from just 40 employees and 60 customers back in 2017 when we led their Series A to a team of more than 700 employees, operating across four European countries and supporting more than 6,000 customers, PayFit’s unique and flexible cloud architecture has enabled it to quickly address the core HR and payroll needs of the large underserved European SMB market and I can’t wait to see what the team will achieve with this new financing.”
