Workpay, a quickly developing HR and payroll technology startup created by Kenyan entrepreneur Paul Kimani, has successfully received $5 million in Series A funding to support its growth and establish a position in Africa’s burgeoning HR and benefits administration market.
Norrsken22, a Pan-African venture capital firm, led the $5 million fundraising round, greatly increasing the startup’s pre-Series-A capital round from $2.7 million in 2023. Visa and Plug & Play also made significant contributions, along with existing investors. This comes as Workpay strives to expand its offerings and reach.
Paul Kimani, co-founder and CEO of Workpay, emphasized the company’s strategic transformation to satisfy changing client needs. “We’ve transformed our platform from a strong payroll solution into a comprehensive HR service,” Kimani told me. “We also see the possibility to incorporate financial services into our HR products. Given that firms already utilize our platform for employee payments, we are well-positioned to deliver new services like medical and auto insurance, as well as engage with partners to provide loan, savings, and investing alternatives.”
Despite the competitive landscape that includes worldwide players, Kimani sees these competitors as a sign of the market’s enormous potential rather than a disincentive. “The existence of multinational competitors demonstrates the market’s considerable opportunities. “Developing a continent-wide payroll solution is difficult due to the diverse regulations and requirements across African countries,” he noted.
Workpay, founded in 2017, offers cloud-based staff management and payroll solutions that aim to ease workforce administration and assure timely remuneration. The software simplifies time tracking, human resource administration, and payroll processing, with bulk salary payments directed to employees’ bank accounts or mobile wallets, assisting businesses in attracting and keeping talent.
Under Paul Kimani’s leadership, the company—previously a former Equity Bank executive—has served two primary customer segments: local enterprises with 20-100 people in a single jurisdiction and larger firms with 100 to 1,000 cross-border employees. Workpay also ensures compliance in numerous marketplaces.
Workpay has grown its scope over the last 16 months, adding approximately 500 new enterprises and supporting over 1,000 clients in 20 African nations. While the corporation has postponed its planned expansion into Francophone Africa, which may expand its reach to 40 nations, it remains dedicated to expanding its operations across the continent. In addition to the most recent Series A fundraising, Workpay raised $2.1 million in seed funding in 2021 and $2.7 million in a pre-Series A round in 2023 from a combination of global and African investors.