WorkPay, formerly TozzaPlus has raised $2m to scale its human resource and payroll management tools for SMBs in East Africa.
WorkPay’s $2.1 million seed round was led by Kepple Africa Ventures with participation from Y Combinator, Soma Capital, Musha Ventures, P1 Ventures, and several angel investors. Kepple Africa Ventures had invested $100,000 in WorkPay in 2019.
According to WorkPay CEO Paul Kimani, “We are fortunate to have the backing of some incredible people on our mission to make it easy for businesses to manage and pay employees across Africa.”
Tozzaplus rebranded to WorkPay Africa to enable businesses not only manage their employees but be able to pay them on time via its new SME overdraft facility. According to Kimani, the rebranding was because the firm “needed a name that resonated with our mission of helping businesses to manage and pay their employees on time”.
WorkPay was selected to pitch at the Oslo Innovation Week after the Pangea Accelerator Demo Day. The firm aims to simplify invoicing, client relations, payroll and accounting for SMEs in East Africa. When it launched, it had three modules include Accounting, Payroll and CRM.
WorkPay has helped a number of businesses to manage and pay their employees with its cloud-based employee management solution for Time Tracking, Human Resource Management (HRM) and Payroll Management with bulk salary payments to employees’ bank accounts or mobile wallets.
It also offers a B2B salary financing facility for existing clients to enable them to pay their employees on time. The clients can then pay the facility within one month easing the cash flow burden for salary payments at the end of the month. The WorkPay clients’ employees can also access affordable salary advances and salary-based loans via the WorkPay Employee Self Service Portal available via web and mobile platforms.
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Today the firm counts more than 25,000 users in Kenya and more than 300 SMBs on its platform and is building its B2B salary financing facility for its clients’ employees to access affordable salary advances and salary-based loans.
In a statement, Ryosuke Yamawaki, General Partner of Kepple Africa Ventures, said, “They’re different in the way they define their key customers, understand their real pains, and design specific solutions. It is no surprise that they have come this far. They will surely become one of the most successful startups in the continent and drastically change the way the workforce is managed.”
