PayFit raises $15.9 million to manage European payrolls

French startup PayFit just raised a $15.9 million Series B round (€14 million) from Accel with Xavier Niel and Otium Venture also participating. PayFit handles most pesky administrative tasks in your company with a simple web interface.

The company started with basic payroll features for French companies. Instead of relying on outdated processes and third-party companies, PayFit lets you easily enter everything about your employees. Then, the company can produce legally compliant paychecks, wire salaries and notify authorities about healthcare or retirement status.

The main advantages are quite simple. PayFit is cheaper than a third-party firm or a full-fledged HR department. It stays up-to-date as everything happens in your browser and gets updated with new labor laws. And employees can easily access past paychecks and their work contract.

“Any business in Europe that employs staff knows the headache in managing payroll,” Accel partner Philippe Botteri told me. “This problem is particularly painful for SMBs, which struggle to comply with the frequently changing labor laws.”

PayFit didn’t stop there and has also integrated many of the basic admin features for a young French company. You can manage your expenses, see upcoming holidays, ask for a vacation and more. The startup is also working on organizational charts, subsidiary management, schedule management and secure storage.

With today’s funding round, the company plans to expand beyond France. You can expect to see PayFit in other European countries soon, such as Spain, Italy, Germany and the U.K. This isn’t as easy as flipping a switch as payroll products are tailored to specific markets — each market is different with different laws and restrictions.

But the market potential is huge and companies don’t usually switch to a new payroll service once they’re satisfied. There are now 600 companies using PayFit, which probably represents quite a substantial monthly recurring revenue.

The startup currently has 40 employees and plans to hire another 40 employees soon. And I’m sure PayFit uses PayFit internally to hire all those people, which should help make the product better over time.

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