Pento raises $15.6m to bring its real-time, automated payroll software to even more companies and free them from onerous outsourcing
The Series A funding round was led by US venture capital firm General Catalyst, with participation from US firm Avid Ventures and UK’s LocalGlobe.
• existing investors Point Nine Capital, Seedcamp, Moonfire Ventures and Hustle Fund also took part, alongside strategic angels from Stripe, Monzo, GoCardless, Zoom, Cuvva, Intercom and more
• Pento is on a mission to free companies from onerous outsourcing, and outdated software while building infrastructure that enables the future of compensation products
• Pento’s SaaS dispels the myth that payroll is too complex to manage in-house by fully automating the process from start to end, in real time for a set monthly fee
• the funds will be used to expand Pento’s remote-first, global team; enter new European markets; and continue developing the platform for the future of compensation
• since the start of 2021, Pento has had consecutive record-breaking months putting it on track to increase its customer base and revenue five-fold by the end of the year
Pento – the payroll automation startup for companies looking to ditch onerous outsourcing and run every stage of payroll in real time – has raised $15.6 million in Series A funding to continue building the future of employee compensation.
The round was led by US venture capital firm General Catalyst, with participation from US firm Avid Ventures and UK’s LocalGlobe. Existing investors Point Nine Capital, Moonfire Ventures, Hustle Fund, and Seedcamp also took part, alongside strategic angels* from Stripe (Thairu and Diede van Lamoen), Monzo (Tom Blomfield), GoCardless (Matt Robinson), Zoom (Eric Yuan), Cuvva (Freddy Macnamara), Intercom (Des Traynor) and more. A number of angels were existing customers of Pento before the round opened, and have seen the benefits first-hand.
The funding will be used to expand its remote-first team around the globe, move into more countries, and continue building advanced features to simplify payroll.
Since 2017, the Danish firm has supported more than 700 companies in the transition away from outdated payroll processes. Pento’s customers to-date include tech firms (Pleo, Cuvva); large hospitality brands (Honest Burgers); and retail and e-commerce brands (Lacoste, Beauty Pie) – a customer base that showcases Pento’s huge market breadth and appeal.
Instead of relying on spreadsheets, PDFs, e-mails, and countless manual checks, Pento gives its customers complete control over every step with easy-to-use, cloud-based tools, real-time calculations, greater transparency, and online and telephone support.
Since the start of 2021, Pento has had consecutive record-breaking months putting it on track to increase its customer base and revenue five-fold by the end of the year. It is also set to triple its remote-first team and Pento is actively hiring across engineering, sales, marketing, people, design and customer service departments globally.
“So much of payroll is still stuck in the dark ages. Companies waste too much precious time and resources attempting to manage payroll and responding to avoidable payroll errors,” said Pento co-founder and CEO, Jonas Bøgh Larsen. “This makes it seem much more complex and closed-off than it needs to be, which fuels the myth that outsourcing is the only viable solution. We want to change that. We’re giving companies the confidence and tools to do it themselves; to make it flexible and easy to get paid in a way that enables everyone to choose for themselves how and when they want it done, without compromising on security, transparency, or speed.”
Purely payroll
Pento was founded by Jonas Bøgh Larsen and Emil Hagbarth Rasmussen after the pair experienced the pain points of payroll first-hand while growing a business. They found that dedicated payroll software was too heavily designed for accountants and experts, meaning too much time was spent trying to navigate and learn on the job.
Meanwhile, the promise of outsourcing – to save time and hassle – failed to live up to expectations. A large proportion of their time was still spent manually managing spreadsheets, bank transfers, sending emails, creating PDFs and sharing data with their payroll provider. This not only has time ramifications, but presents a significant security risk when highly-sensitive data on employees is being constantly accessed by a third-party. The duo built Pento to solve these problems.
Pento is a SaaS-based online platform that automates every step of the payroll process from start to end, in real time. It’s suitable for small and medium-sized businesses, up to companies with 1,000+ employees and includes generating P45s, P60s, P32s, P11Ds automatically, and complete end-of-year reporting. All at a set, transparent monthly fee, based on a customer’s employee numbers.
The software has real-time calculators to help employers work out liabilities, and automate PAYE, National Insurance Contributions and salary payments. Pento gets rid of payroll deadlines and cut-off dates, offers fast and reliable payroll support, and plugs directly into HMRC – or other country-relevant authorities – for reporting. Soon, employees will be able to get immediate and transparent access to pay history and personal pay-related data. Pento can additionally be integrated into existing accounting software, HR products like BambooHR and Hibob (and soon Personio, Humaans and others), plus pension providers to create a seamless workflow. Additionally, the first version of an open payroll API is already in beta and is being tested by existing customers.
“Our integrations with existing software play a key role in what sets us apart,” said co-founder and CTO, Emil Hagbarth Rasmussen. “From day one, we said we didn’t want to become a Jack of all trades, master of none. We don’t want to spread ourselves too thin trying to be accounting, HR, pension providers and more. Payroll is our bread and butter. Purely payroll. Not only does focusing on improving every single element of payroll make us infinitely more useful for our customers, but we're building the infrastructure that enables us and other startups to innovate and build the next-generation of new and exciting compensation products. We're also delighted to welcome angel investors from the likes of Papaya Global (Eynat Guez), Remote.com (Job van der Voort), OysterHR (Tony Jamous) and Deel (Alex Bouaziz) to this round. Their experience creating industry-leading companies in the HR and payroll tech space provides significant validation for us.”
Beyond the time, hassle and money that Pento is saving its companies from outsourcing their payroll to accountants or bureaus, its end-to-end, integrated and cloud-based approach is also a significant boost for data protection and security.
“Despite being so business-critical, payroll is one of the least digitally advanced services across the globe,” said Adam Valkin, Managing Director at General Catalyst. “It’s also one that has garnered a reputation for being too complex, too convoluted and too out of reach for those who aren’t payroll specialists, leading many to consider expensive outsourcing as the only route to go. Pento dispels this myth because it’s built purely with HR and finance teams in mind, by business leaders who truly understand the frustrations involved. It’s easy-to-use, transparent, flexible, secure and affordable. It’s what payroll should be in a modern company and it represents the future of employee compensation.”
This latest funding takes the total raised by Pento to $18.4 million.