ZenPayroll

ZenPayroll is a company that provides a cloud-based payroll solution for businesses based in the United States. ZenPayroll handles payments to employees and contractors and also handles electronically the paperwork necessary to help client companies comply with tax, labor, and immigration laws.[1] As of December 2014, it was operational in 31 US states.[2]

Pricing

As of January 2015, ZenPayroll's price is $25/month per company plus $4/month per employee. They offer a free trial period. Payment is on a monthly basis and there is no long-term contract.[3]

History

ZenPayroll was part of Y Combinator's Winter 2012 batch.[4] The service launched officially on December 11, 2012 in California.[4][5]

On June 12, 2013, ZenPayroll announced support for paying contract workers, including making sure of tax compliance (by filing the relevant Form 1099 and other paperwork). This was touted by some technology writers as giving the company an advantage over competitors such as ADP and Paychex, whose payroll software was claimed to lack the flexibility to accommodate contract workers. The company also announced plans to launch very soon in Florida, Texas, and New York state.[6][7]

In August 2013, ZenPayroll announced that it had crossed $100 million in payments processed annually, and was launching in Florida, Texas, and Washington state.[8]

In September 2014, ZenPayroll announced its application programming interface (API) and partnerships with over a dozen small and medium business (SMB) back-office service companies.[9][10]

In December 2014, ZenPayroll announced support for letting companies match employees' charitable donations.[11]

Funding

In December 2012, ZenPayroll announced that, back in April 2012 upon graduating from Y Combinator's Winter 2012 class, ZenPayroll had raised the largest seed round for a Y Combinator startup. The total amount of $6.1 million was raised from investors including Box CEO and co-founder Aaron Levie, Yammer CEO and co-founder David Sacks, Dropbox CEO and co-founder Drew Houston, YouTube co-founder Jawed Karim, Yelp CEO and co-founder Jeremy Stoppelman, Badgeville CEO and co-founder Kris Duggan, SugarCRM CEO Larry Augustin, and Zuora CEO and co-founder Tien Tzuo, as well as Google Ventures, Data Collective, Sherpalo Ventures, and Salesforce.com.[4][5][12]

On February 19, 2014, ZenPayroll announced a $20 million Series A funding round at a valuation of over $100 million. The round was led by General Catalyst Partners, with Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers also participating.[13][14][2][15]

In April 2015, the company secured $60M in Series B funding. The round was led by Google Capital.[16]

Reception

VentureBeat has listed ZenPayroll among the best back-office software for small businesses.[17] The New York Times has compared ZenPayroll to larger payroll processors such as ADP, citing both advantages and disadvantages.[18] ZenPayroll has been praised by TechCrunch and PandoDaily for offering an easy-to-use service to small businesses and to companies using contractors.[6][7]

References

  1. ↑ "About". ZenPayroll. Retrieved January 18, 2015.
  2. ↑ 2.0 2.1 Novet, Jordan (February 19, 2014). "Investors deposit $20M in ZenPayroll as the company eyes expansion". VentureBeat. Retrieved January 20, 2015.
  3. ↑ "Start a 2-Month Free Trial". ZenPayroll. January 18, 2015.
  4. ↑ 4.0 4.1 4.2 Carney, Michael (December 11, 2012). "ZenPayroll raises YC’s largest seed round from the Mt. Rushmore of Valley entrepreneurs". PandoDaily. Retrieved January 20, 2015.
  5. ↑ 5.0 5.1 Williams, Alex (December 11, 2012). "ZenPayroll Launches Cloud-Based Payroll Service With $6.1M In Seed Funding From CEOs At Yammer, Box, Yelp And Dropbox". TechCrunch. Retrieved January 20, 2015.
  6. ↑ 6.0 6.1 Williams, Alex (June 12, 2013). "ZenPayroll Now Gives Employers A Way To Pay Contractors That ADP Can’t". TechCrunch. Retrieved January 20, 2015.
  7. ↑ 7.0 7.1 Carney, Michael (June 12, 2013). "ZenPayroll adds support for contract workers, preps for expansion to Florida, Texas, and soon New York". PandoDaily. Retrieved January 20, 2015.
  8. ↑ Carney, Michael (August 29, 2013). "ZenPayroll crosses $100M in payroll processed annually, launches in Texas, Florida, and Washington". PandoDaily. Retrieved January 20, 2015.
  9. ↑ Carney, Michael (September 3, 2014). "ZenPayroll aims to unite the SMB back-office, integrates with a dozen other cloud-based systems". PandoDaily. Retrieved January 20, 2015.
  10. ↑ Lawler, Ryan (September 3, 2014). "ZenPayroll Partners With A Dozen Other SMB Back-Office Tools". TechCrunch. Retrieved January 20, 2015.
  11. ↑ Novet, Jordan (December 16, 2014). "ZenPayroll now lets companies match employees’ charitable donations". VentureBeat. Retrieved January 20, 2015.
  12. ↑ Gage, Deborah (December 11, 2012). "Paychecks Move to the Cloud as Google, Salesforce Back ZenPayroll". Wall Street Journal. Retrieved January 20, 2015.
  13. ↑ Rao, Leena (February 19, 2014). "Cloud-Based Payroll App ZenPayroll Raises $20M From General Catalyst And Kleiner At A $100M-Plus Valuation". TechCrunch. Retrieved January 20, 2015.
  14. ↑ Carney, Michael (February 19, 2014). "Hockeysticking ZenPayroll grabs a $20M Series A, sets out to make you love payroll as much as its founders do". PandoDaily. Retrieved January 20, 2015.
  15. ↑ Gage, Deborah (February 19, 2014). "San Francisco Startup ZenPayroll Raises $20M, Finds Novel Ways to Lure Workers". Wall Street Journal. Retrieved January 20, 2015.
  16. ↑ http://www.forbes.com/sites/ellenhuet/2015/04/06/zenpayroll-raises-60-million-google-capital/
  17. ↑ Grant, Rebecca (January 27, 2014). "The best back-office software for small businesses". VentureBeat. Retrieved January 20, 2015.
  18. ↑ Hardy, Quentin (September 3, 2014). "ZenPayroll Gives Small Business the Tech Tools of Big Business". New York Times. Retrieved January 20, 2015.

External links