The employment landscape in Africa is complex, with businesses facing challenges such as diverse regulatory environments, geographically dispersed teams, and the increasing prevalence of hybrid work models. For Small and Medium Businesses (SMBs), managing payroll remains a significant hurdle, with 80% still relying on manual methods like Excel and Google Sheets. This reliance on outdated tools leads to frequent errors, compliance issues, and financial penalties. While many SMBs lack the resources to implement advanced systems, traditional on-premises payroll solutions often fall short, and enterprise-level software is typically too expensive and cumbersome. Although SaaS platforms have revolutionised payroll management in the West, they often struggle to adapt to Africa’s unique needs, including the necessity for localisation across 54 countries and sensitivity to pricing.

Workpay, co-founded by Paul Kimani and Jackson Kibigo, addresses these challenges with its all-encompassing cloud-based platform. It manages the entire employee lifecycle, from onboarding to offboarding, and includes features such as payroll processing, time and leave management, expense tracking, performance monitoring, employee benefits administration, and Employer of Record (EOR) services. The platform has already attracted over 1,000 businesses in more than 20 African countries and aims to shape the future of employee financial services and benefits on the continent.

With Africa projected to have the largest working-age population by 2050, the demand for outsourcing services is set to grow, fuelled by the rise in remote work and talent shortages in other regions. Workpay is well-positioned to support companies, both within Africa and globally, in ensuring compliant payroll processes while offering essential financial services to employees.

Paul Kimani, CEO of Workpay says: “Our goal is to become the go-to solution for employers and employees in managing HR, payroll, and work-related benefits. Our deep understanding of regulation across the African continent allows businesses working across multiple countries to manage payroll and tax using a single integrated platform. This raise will support Workpay to reach profitability, a huge milestone for our company.”

Ngetha Waithaka, General Partner at Norrsken22 says: “Our investment in Workpay offers an exciting opportunity to revolutionise how Africa’s SMEs carry out their employee management. Africa boasts one of the largest working age populations in the world and they remain grossly underserved by existing HR and payroll tools. With the addition of integrated financial services, Workpay’s potential for growth is immense.”

Thomas Otter at Acadian Ventures says,:“We are excited to expand our investment in Workpay. The company has developed the most comprehensive, modern HR and payroll platform and are poised to become the market leading HR platform across Africa over the next decade.”

Ryosuke Yamawaki, Partner at Verod-Kepple Africa Ventures says: “Over the years, we have witnessed the leadership team’s exceptional business capabilities to evolve a single-industry focused product to a one-of-a-kind platform that cuts across all HR needs of African businesses. We are excited, again, to be part of this round and join the journey to revolutionise how human resource management is supposed to be done in Africa.”

Workpay will use the money raised to aid their expansion across the continent and build out its financial services provision.