Kenyan HR payroll start-up Workpay to expand across Africa after securing Ksh.342M

Kenyan HR payroll provider Workpay has secured Ksh.342 million ($2.7 million) in funding in a pre-Series A round.

Co-founded by Paul Kimani (CEO) and Jackson Kungu (COO) and launched in 2019, Workpay gives employers a platform to process employees’ salaries and benefits, file taxes, and keep track of their attendance and leave days.

Confirming the news in a LinkedIn post, Kimani said the round involved the support of Launch Africa Ventures, Saviu Ventures, Acadian Ventures, PROPARCO, Fondation Botnar, Kara Ventures, and Axian Group Norrsken.

He said the company is planning to expand its services across other African markets.

“We have some exciting new products in the pipeline. Our upcoming products will offer greater flexibility to employees, providing easier access to their salaries,” he wrote.

Workpay is backed by Y Combinator and was in the American tech start-up accelerator’s 2020 class. At the time, the company raised Ksh.266 million ($2.1 million) in seed funding.

Start-up accelerators, or seed accelerators, are fixed-term, cohort-based mentorship programs that provide guidance, support and limited funding in exchange for equity. They usually end in a public pitch event or demo day.

In 2021, Workpay was selected for Google's Black Founders Fund for Africa.

Under the start-up’s platform, employees of the partner companies have their own app where they receive and view their pay slips, make expense requests and apply for leave days.

Among the new additions the company plans on introducing are linkages to investment accounts, medical and asset insurance and earned-wage access for employees attending to emergencies or bills, American tech outlet TechCrunch reports.

“Since 2021 we have been doubling revenue every year, and the number of our customers, who are nearing 700 as we speak. We also have about $200 million in total payroll value that we are handling for our customers annually,” the publication quoted Kimani as saying.