Barb Gamey carried a desktop computer into sales meetings and pitched a radical idea for payroll: modern Canadian software, backed by a person who knows your name. Twenty-five years later, Payworks is testing how far that service-first playbook can scale.
The consumer app had more than a million users. The better business appeared when employers kept asking for something else: a way to turn everyday appreciation into a system people would actually use.
Insynctive spent years building the connective tissue that legacy HR stacks forgot. Its bet is simple: companies would rather automate the handoffs than replace the systems they already paid for.
ConnectPay bet that small businesses still want a human on the phone, not a support ticket - then bought dozens of local payroll shops to build a company around that promise.

palm.hr is a Riyadh-born, cloud-based HR and payroll platform built for small and mid-sized businesses across Saudi Arabia and the wider GCC. It brings employee data, time and attendance, WPS-compliant payroll, and employee engagement into one system that plugs directly into local government rails like GOSI and Mudad, so companies can run people operations that comply with regional labor law out of the box. Founded in 2019, it raised a $5M pre-Series A in 2023 to expand across MENA and pairs its software with an outsourced HR concierge service.
Founded to hand-process payroll for a handful of New Jersey firms, ADP now quietly moves the paychecks of one in six American workers - and it hasn't missed a quarterly earnings increase since 1961.
Reduce HR admin time, run payroll in minutes, streamline all your payments, and deliver world-class employee experiences - unified on one platform hyperlocalised for the GCC.
Eazipay is a Lagos-based payroll and payment automation platform that lets African businesses run payroll, remit taxes and statutory contributions, and pay their teams in about five minutes. Founded in 2021 and backed by Y Combinator (W22), it also offers payroll APIs for banks and neobanks and financial-wellness tools such as early wage access for workers.
Workpay is a Nairobi-based HR and payroll software company that helps local and global businesses hire, pay, and manage employees and contractors across Africa. Its cloud platform combines payroll processing, time and attendance, leave, expenses, benefits, and Employer of Record (EOR) services so companies can run compliant payroll in local currency without setting up a legal entity in each country. Founded in 2019 out of an earlier product called TozzaPlus, the Y Combinator-backed startup serves more than 1,000 companies and processes over $200 million in payroll value a year.
EngageRocket is a Singapore-based HR technology company that turns continuous employee feedback into actionable people-analytics. Founded in 2016 by two former Gallup leaders, its cloud platform runs engagement, lifecycle and pulse surveys (BELONG), 360-degree and multi-rater feedback (GROW), and performance workflows (PERFORM), pairing survey software with people-science advisory. It serves enterprises across 30+ countries - including Toyota, Sephora, Nikon, Epson and CGS-CIMB - to improve engagement, reduce turnover and support data-informed HR decisions.
HONO is an AI-native HR technology company that runs the full employee lifecycle - hire to retire - on a single platform spanning core HR, global payroll, talent management and workforce analytics. Founded in 2016 and headquartered in Gurugram, India, HONO layers conversational AI over enterprise HR operations and in 2026 launched what it calls the world's first 'headless' HRMS, replacing navigation-heavy screens with a natural-language execution engine. It serves 300+ enterprise clients across 30+ countries, covering over a million employees.
HReasily is a Singapore-headquartered cloud HR and payroll platform that helps small and mid-sized businesses across Southeast Asia automate payroll, leave, claims, staff records and time-attendance in one place. Founded in 2015, it operates across six Asian markets and handles local statutory compliance so growing companies can run HR with less paperwork.
Jisr (جسر, Arabic for 'bridge') is a Riyadh-based HR and finance software company building a cloud platform that unifies HR, payroll, talent and spend for businesses in Saudi Arabia and the wider MENA region. Founded in 2016-2017 as Saudi Arabia's Vision 2030 got underway, Jisr localizes its product deeply - integrating directly with government portals like GOSI, Mudad and Muqeem so companies can run compliant payroll and workforce operations. In October 2023 it raised a $30 million Series A led by Merak Capital, reported as the largest Series A for a SaaS company in the Middle East. The platform is used by thousands of organizations processing billions of riyals in payroll.
Mekari is Indonesia's leading business software company, offering a unified SaaS ecosystem that helps companies run HR, payroll, accounting, CRM, expenses, and digital signing on a single connected platform. Formed in 2019 from the merger of Sleekr, Talenta, Jurnal, and Klikpajak, Mekari now serves roughly 300,000 businesses and more than a million users across the country, positioning itself as the operating backbone for Indonesian SMBs and enterprises going digital.
ZenHR is a cloud-based Human Resources Management System (HRMS) built specifically for the Middle East, North Africa and Gulf region. It automates payroll, attendance, onboarding, performance and recruitment while staying compliant with local labor laws, social insurance (GOSI), and wage protection (WPS) rules. Founded in 2016 and headquartered in Riyadh, ZenHR serves companies from small businesses to large enterprises across markets including Saudi Arabia, the UAE, Egypt, Jordan, Kuwait and Iraq.
Compt is a Boston-based HR software company that runs flexible employee stipends and Lifestyle Spending Accounts (LSAs) for employers. Instead of one-size-fits-all perks, employees choose how to spend an allowance across categories like wellness, professional development, childcare, home office and pet care; they submit a receipt and get reimbursed through payroll with the correct tax treatment applied automatically. Founded in 2018 by Amy Spurling, the reimbursement-based platform emphasizes IRS-compliant tax handling, high participation, and low administrative overhead, and operates across all 50 U.S. states and 75+ countries.
HelloTeam is a Boston-based HR technology company that builds an all-in-one employee engagement and performance management platform aimed at improving employee retention. Founded in 2016 by Tanya Bakalov, the software combines performance reviews, goals and OKRs, recognition and rewards, surveys, learning, a dynamic org chart, and people analytics into a single system so managers and HR teams can keep employees connected, engaged, and productive.
Trayd is a New York-based back-office operating system built for specialty trade contractors, unifying payroll, HR, compliance, scheduling and real-time labor tracking in one platform. It automates the hardest parts of construction pay - union rules, Davis-Bacon prevailing wages, multi-state taxes and certified payroll - cutting weekly processing from 14 hours to 27 minutes while giving workers earned wages days sooner. Founded in 2021 by Anna Berger and Cara Kessler and backed by Y Combinator, Suffolk Technologies and White Star Capital, Trayd has grown revenue 600% year over year.
Workday is a Pleasanton, California cloud software company that runs the core people and money systems for large organizations. Founded in 2005 by PeopleSoft veterans Dave Duffield and Aneel Bhusri after Oracle's hostile takeover of PeopleSoft, Workday built a single-code-base, subscription-delivered platform for human capital management, financial management, planning, and analytics. It has grown into one of the largest enterprise SaaS vendors, serving thousands of organizations - including a large share of the Fortune 500 - and is now pushing agentic AI deep into HR and finance workflows.
ADP is one of the world's largest providers of payroll and human capital management (HCM) technology and services. Founded in 1949 as a manual payroll bureau in New Jersey, it now runs cloud-based platforms that pay and manage the workforces of more than a million clients across 140 countries, processing pay for roughly 42 million workers. Its business spans payroll, tax filing, benefits, talent, time and attendance, retirement services, and full HR outsourcing through its PEO arm.
UKG (Ultimate Kronos Group) is an American workforce management and human capital management software company formed in 2020 from the merger of Kronos Incorporated and Ultimate Software. It builds cloud HR, payroll, scheduling, time-and-attendance, and culture technology - anchored by its UKG Pro and UKG Ready suites - for more than 80,000 organizations worldwide, with a particular focus on managing frontline and hourly workforces.
Enboarder is an HR technology company that builds an experience-driven employee onboarding and 'people activation' platform. Founded in Sydney in 2015 by Brent Pearson, it helps employers design and automate engaging, human-centered journeys for new hires, managers and existing employees across onboarding, transitions and offboarding. In 2025 the company re-architected its product to be AI-native, positioning itself as an 'AI orchestration layer for the employee lifecycle.' More than 400 global companies - including McDonald's, Deloitte, Shopify, Hugo Boss, ING and Eventbrite - use Enboarder, which has raised roughly $50 million in venture funding.
Keka HR is a cloud-based human resource, payroll and people-operations platform for small and mid-sized businesses. Founded in Hyderabad in 2014 by Vijay Yalamanchili, it bundles payroll, attendance, leave, performance, hiring and employee-engagement tools into a single self-serve system. After bootstrapping for years, Keka raised a $57 million Series A from WestBridge Capital in 2022 - reported as India's largest Series A in SaaS at the time - and now serves thousands of companies while processing payroll for more than a million employees each month.
Complete is a San Francisco-based compensation management platform that helps startups and scaling companies design, model, and communicate employee pay - covering salary, equity, bonuses, and benefits. Founded in 2022 by Rani Mavram and Zack Field, the Y Combinator-backed company replaces spreadsheets with interactive offer letters, total rewards statements, salary bands, and AI-driven scenario planning through its Compy agent, integrating across ATS, HRIS, and cap table systems.
Fleet is a San Francisco-based commuter benefits management platform that helps employers set up, run, and stay compliant with pre-tax and subsidized transportation programs. It manages all mobility spend in one place - pre-tax transit and parking, employer subsidies, government grants, and rewards - across transit, parking, bikes, e-bikes, scooters, rideshare, and vanpools. By integrating with 180+ HR and payroll systems, Fleet lets HR teams roll out commuter benefits quickly, meet local mandates in cities like NYC, LA, and the Bay Area, and nudge employees toward lower-carbon commutes.
Paismo is a people-first, AI-powered HR and payroll platform built for small and mid-sized businesses in emerging markets. Founded in 2022 by University of Pennsylvania alumni Rebecka Zavaleta and Usama Mahmud, it combines core HR, time and attendance, leave, performance management and automated payroll into one cloud system - with localized features designed from the ground up for markets that legacy HR software has long ignored. Backed by a $1.5M seed haul led by Indus Valley Capital, Paismo now spans the US, UAE, Pakistan, Mexico and Ethiopia, and has layered on Employer of Record services and a one-click payroll partnership with easypaisa.
Refresh is a white-labeled employee-experience SuperApp that unifies benefits, wellness, recognition, communication, and onboarding into one branded mobile app. Born in 2007 as Refresh Body, a New York on-demand massage-and-yoga concierge for offices and hotels, it pivoted into HR technology aimed at the deskless and frontline majority of the global workforce. Its orchestration layer connects thousands of existing HR, payroll, and collaboration tools, then delivers the right resource to the right employee at the right moment - so benefits that companies already pay for actually get used.
Leapsome is an AI-powered people enablement platform that unifies the HR stack - performance reviews, goals and OKRs, engagement surveys, learning, compensation, and a core HRIS - in one place. Founded in Berlin in 2016 by Jenny von Podewils and Kajetan von Armansperg, it helps managers and HR teams run feedback, development, and alignment processes without juggling spreadsheets and disconnected tools. The company bootstrapped to profitability before raising a $60M Series A in 2022, and today serves more than 1,500 organizations including Spotify, Unity, and monday.com.
Lattice is a San Francisco-based people-management software company that helps organizations run performance reviews, set goals, gather employee feedback, manage compensation, and track engagement in one connected platform. Founded in 2015 by Jack Altman and Eric Koslow, it now serves several thousand companies and has leaned hard into AI under CEO Sarah Franklin, who joined from Salesforce in 2024.
Homebase is a San Francisco-based workforce management platform built for small businesses running hourly teams. Founded in 2014, it combines employee scheduling, time tracking, payroll, HR compliance, and team communication in one mobile-first app. As of 2024, the platform serves over 150,000 businesses and 3.8 million hourly workers, having logged 8 billion hours and processed $3 billion in gross payroll. Backed by $198 million in total funding, Homebase competes by bundling tools that small business owners previously paid for separately - and more recently by embedding AI assistants across hiring, scheduling, and payroll.