Check turns payroll's tax, filing and compliance maze into a single API - so any platform can build and sell its own payroll product.
Ask any software founder about adding payroll and you will hear a groan. It means tax tables for all 50 states, deadlines that never move, and money that has to land in the right account on the exact right day. Check exists so they never have to build that.
Check is a New York fintech that provides embedded payroll infrastructure. In plain terms: it gives software platforms an API and a set of drop-in components that let them offer full-service payroll to their own customers, under their own brand. Check handles the hard, invisible parts - gross-to-net tax calculation, money movement, real-time payments, tax filing, and compliance across states and jurisdictions.
The company was founded in 2019 by Andrew Brown, Eric Stromberg and Vivek Patel, the same team that built Oyster, an unlimited e-book subscription service acquired by Google in 2015. Rather than chase another consumer product, they picked one of the least glamorous problems in business software and rebuilt it from the plumbing up.
Check emerged from stealth in January 2021. By 2025 it had grown into a business that pays more than a million employees, serves over 35,000 small businesses, and processes north of $15 billion in payroll a year - all through the platforms that build on it.
The pitch is often described as the Stripe thesis applied to payroll: take a regulatory swamp and turn it into a few lines of code. It is fitting, then, that Stripe led both of Check's largest funding rounds.
A partner integrates once. Check does the rest, quietly, every pay cycle.
A platform integrates Check's API and drop-in components, adding payroll inside its existing product.
Employers and employees are set up through self-service onboarding and payroll migration tools.
Check calculates taxes, moves money, and issues real-time payments each cycle.
Tax filings and W-2s are handled across states - at 99.9% filing accuracy.
“More payroll runs on Check than any other embedded solution.”
The engine that runs payroll end to end - tax calculation, money movement, real-time payments, filing and multi-state compliance - through a single API.
Customizable, white-label UI components partners drop into their own product, so they never have to design payroll screens from scratch.
Self-service onboarding and migration tooling that moves employers and their teams onto a partner's payroll product.
Health benefits, 401(k), workers' compensation, and accounting or ERP integrations layered on top of core payroll.
Fraud detection and credit-risk monitoring that protect partners as they move payroll funds at scale.
Payroll and compliance built to work across all 50 U.S. states and a wide range of workforce types.
Who uses it. Check's customers are software platforms, not businesses directly. Vertical SaaS, HR, time-tracking, accounting and workforce-management companies embed Check and resell payroll to their own small-business users. Through those partners, Check reaches restaurants, construction crews, home-services trades, childcare centers and more.
The problem it solves. Building payroll in-house can take years and a dedicated compliance team. Partnering with a legacy provider is slow and rarely white-label. Check compresses that to weeks and lets the partner keep its brand, its pricing and its customer relationship.
How it is different. Companies like Gusto and ADP primarily sell payroll as their own end-user product. Check sells the infrastructure beneath - it stays invisible so its partners can be the hero. Against embedded rivals such as Gusto Embedded, Zeal and Salsa, Check leans on scale, reliability and the depth of its partner roster.
Where it fits. Check sits in the embedded-finance layer, doing for payroll what payment APIs did for checkout. As more vertical software adds financial features, the payroll rails underneath become a durable, high-trust business.
| Round | Amount | Date | Lead / Investors |
|---|---|---|---|
| Seed | $1M | 2019 | Bedrock |
| Series A | $8M | 2020 | Bedrock, Thrive, Index |
| Series B | $35M | Jan 2021 | Stripe, Thrive |
| Series C | $75M | Feb 2022 | Stripe (lead), Bedrock, Thrive, Index |
Figures compiled from public announcements and databases; totals are approximate.
The Oyster team starts Check in New York with a $1M seed from Bedrock.
An $8M round led by Bedrock, with Thrive and Index, funds the build-out of payroll infrastructure.
Check exits stealth in January with a Stripe- and Thrive-led round and partners including Homebase.
Fresh capital at a $725M valuation to scale the embedded-payroll platform.
Wave launches payroll on Check for 300,000+ businesses; 65+ partners, nearly $1B/month in volume.
Check provides embedded payroll infrastructure - an API and white-label components that let software platforms build, brand and sell their own full-service payroll product without handling tax calculation, filing and compliance themselves.
Software platforms serving small and mid-sized businesses, such as Wave, Homebase, Housecall Pro, 7shifts and Miter. Through 65+ partners, Check pays over a million employees at 35,000+ businesses.
About $119M across four rounds, including a $75M Series C led by Stripe in February 2022 at a $725M valuation.
Andrew Brown (CEO), Eric Stromberg and Vivek Patel founded Check in 2019 - the same team that built Oyster, acquired by Google in 2015.
Check sells payroll infrastructure to platforms rather than payroll directly to businesses. Its partners embed payroll under their own brand and set their own pricing, while Gusto and ADP primarily offer payroll as their own end-user product.
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