payroll-automation
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Cocoon Turned Parental Leave's Fax-Machine Maze Into Software - Then TriNet Bought It for $23 Million
Three former Stripe and Square operators started with one customer, one state and one leave type. Five years later, Cocoon had supported 25,000 leaves, won 400-plus employers and sold to TriNet - a neat lesson in turning regulatory sludge into useful software.
Eazipay
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.
Nory
Nory is an AI-native restaurant operating system that unifies business intelligence, inventory, workforce management and payroll into a single control centre for hospitality operators. Founded by restaurateur Conor Sheridan, it plugs into a restaurant's existing tech stack and uses real-time data plus predictive analytics - and a crew of 'agentic' AI assistants - to forecast demand, plan staffing, manage ordering and keep the P&L on track. Operators report cutting operating costs by nearly 20 percent and reducing food waste by up to 50 percent. Backed by $62.6M in funding, Nory serves multi-site groups from Black Sheep Coffee to the Jamie Oliver Group and is expanding into the United States.
Paismo
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.
Warp
Warp is an AI-native payroll, compliance, and benefits platform built for high-growth startups. It automates the back-office grind - multi-state tax registrations, filings, benefits enrollment, global contractor payments, and compliance-notice resolution - so founders can hire, onboard, and pay teams anywhere in the US and 150+ countries without the manual admin. Backed by Y Combinator and Sound Ventures, Warp has raised about $24-25M to build what it calls an autonomous back office.
Shreesha Ramdas
Shreesha Ramdas is the CEO and Co-Founder of Lumber (LumberFi Inc.), an AI-first construction workforce management platform that automates payroll, time tracking, HR, safety, and compliance for specialty contractors. A serial entrepreneur who previously co-founded Strikedeck (acquired by Medallia) and LeadFormix (acquired by SAP/CallidusCloud), Ramdas deliberately pivoted from serving Silicon Valley to digitizing one of the most labor-intensive and underserved industries in America. Under his leadership, Lumber raised $21M in total funding, acquired BuilderFax, and is building autonomous AI agents to handle everything from prevailing wage audits to paper timecard digitization.