Payroll Startups funded by Y Combinator (YC) 2026

Deel is the all-in-one payroll and HR platform for global teams. Built for the way the world works today, Deel combines HRIS, payroll, compliance, benefits, performance, and equipment management into one seamless platform. With AI-powered tools and a fully owned payroll infrastructure, Deel supports every worker type in 120+ countries—helping businesses scale smarter, faster, and more compliantly. Discover how Deel makes global work simple at deel.com.

Launched in 2012 as ZenPayroll, Gusto serves more than 300,000 businesses nationwide. Each year we process tens of billions of dollars of payroll and provide employee benefits—like health insurance and 401(k) accounts—while helping companies create incredible work places. Through one refreshingly easy, integrated platform, we automate and simplify your payroll, benefits, and HR, all while providing expert support. You and your employees will get the peace of mind you need to do your best work.

Grade is the API for performance-based payroll. Think of us like Deel or Gusto, but our payouts are for work completed, not hours. Companies use Grade to pay AI agents and contractors based on results: tasks completed, targets hit, work delivered. We handle compliance, tax reporting, and global payouts.

Shor is a new Employer-of-Record built from the ground up with AI agents and stablecoins. We enable remote teams to hire and pay global employees at a fraction of the cost. The process is fast, simple, and fully compliant. Today, global payroll is broken. Payments take days, cost 5–10% in fees, and force companies to navigate complex banking, tax, and labor regulations. Platforms like Deel and Rippling solved this for large enterprises but remain too expensive and cumbersome for the millions of startups and growing remote teams scaling globally. Shor fixes this by combining autonomous AI agents with stablecoin-based settlement. Our agents handle contracts, worker classification, compliance, and payroll automatically in a simple, messaging-first experience. Payments can settle in seconds rather than weeks at a fraction of the cost of legacy providers. We are making global payroll fast, affordable, and accessible for the millions of companies left out by legacy platforms.

malibou is a web application helping French SMBs to manage employees, run payroll and track compliance in a single app. When processing payroll in France, you either have the choice between an accountant with good advice but no way to connect an HRIS with him, or a good HRIS that does not include payroll services. It was time for a change, to finally bring payroll and HR at the same place. Due to increasing competition in the space, French payroll engines have just opened their APIs. This allows us to offer a unified payroll and HR solution, which wasn't possible before.

Cercli is the AI native platform for businesses to hire and manage their workforce.

Trayd is a B2B construction payroll platform and back office management system designed for same-day pay. We allow the 7M construction workers in the US to get access to their earned wages 7-10 days sooner than legacy payroll providers. With a unique spin on traditional payroll, Trayd is on a mission to create back office efficiencies for commercial subcontractors while simultaneously addressing the significant labor shortage affecting the $2.1TR North American construction industry. Trayd is bigger than construction payroll. It's the promise that the hardest working people get access to their money, as and when they need it, creating greater financial wellness across the board. Not only that, we are pioneering digital cash access for a demographic traditionally overlooked while simultaneously modernizing operations in an industry that has been slow to adapt. The challenges and opportunities with Trayd are abundant, promising an engaging journey ahead.

Generic payroll providers weren't built for construction - Hammr is. Our modern tools simplify construction payroll, HR and operations. We help construction companies boost profits, not paperwork.

Warp is a modern, AI-native employee management platform for high-growth companies. We’ve raised $25M from Sound Ventures (Ashton Kutcher), A-Star, Abstract, Drew Houston & Arash Ferdowsi (Dropbox), Balaji Srinivasan, Amjad Masad (Replit), Kyle Vogt (Cruise), SV Angel & Homebrew Capital.

Thera is an AI-native ecosystem of apps to run a modern business: global payroll, treasury, spend management, invoicing/payments. Thera works with hundreds of the world's leading companies like Oceans, 20four7VA, Landed, Zendrop, Oneleet, Codingal and Meru to supercharge their growth. Backed by Y Combinator, Amino Capital, Zillionize, 10x Founder, and many more.

Eazipay is Africa’s leading payroll and payment automation platform, making it easy for businesses to pay their teams accurately, on time, and with minimal effort. Our Payroll API enables businesses, fintechs, and platforms to integrate payroll processing directly into their systems—automating salary payments, tax deductions, and compliance. Beyond payroll, Eazipay also empowers workers by providing faster access to their earnings and financial benefits. With features like early wage access and financial wellness tools, we help employees and gig workers gain more control over their income and financial stability. We now serve over 10k businesses, with many YC companies as customers.

Buró de Ingresos makes it easy for consumers and businesses to share income information to financial institutions

Runa is a modern, cloud-based payroll and human resources software built for companies in Latin America. Companies can manage payroll, human resources, time tracking, performance management and reporting all in one platform.

Central kills back-office work for startups. While HR/payroll platforms give you software to figure it out, Central actually does all the work using AI agents and human experts: payroll, benefits, compliance, accounting, taxes, and more. That's 10+ hours back every month. Thousands of founders trust Central. Learn more and start for free at centralhq.com

We make it easy for growing teams to set up and run their payroll & HR (instead of a mess of spreadsheets, poorly integrated tools, and emails with accountants). - 1 min to run payroll - 2 mins to onboard new starters - Hands-off pension & accounting integrations - Centralised employee info, time-off, and reporting Our team are software engineers who spent 4 years scaling Monzo from 400k to 6m customers. While at Monzo we repeatedly got paid incorrectly by their poor payroll providers. So we decided to build the product that they should have used from day 1. We’ve gained certification as a payroll software from the UK government.

Humi is building important infrastructure for Canada's economy. Software that helps SMBs employ Canadians. Payroll, HR, and Benefits all together in a single simple to use platform. Serving thousands of Canadian companies, Humi’s clients include innovators such as Ada, Hubdoc, LiveCA, AudioBooks.com, Inkbox, and others. www.Humi.ca