The PayFit startup specializing in payroll management and HR solutions has just completed a funding round of 254 million euros allowing it to become the 23rd French unicorn. The company intends to take advantage of this new new money to diversify its offer and strengthen its presence in its four main markets.
PayFit is now valued at 1.82 billion euros
Yet another success for FrenchTech. The start-up PayFit, which publishes payroll software and HR solutions for small and medium-sized businesses just announced have closed a new round of funding of 254 million euros with General Atlantic, Eurazeo, Large Venture, Bpifrance and Accel. With a valuation now raised to 1.82 billion euros, it thus becomes the 23rd tricolor unicorn. A great success for the startup which had had a complicated year in 2020, when it had to separate from several dozen employees at the start of the health crisis.
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Now recovering from the crisis, the company, which operates in four markets (France, Germany, England and Spain) recorded a 70% increase in its revenues in 2021. More than 6,000 companies are already using its solution for a total of 150,000 employees using its solution. However, the development margin is still enormous for the company, which aims to reach 9,000 companies in one year. In France alone (which represents 80% of its turnover), the company has declared that it wants to offer its technology to the existing “two million SMEs”. This new fundraising should therefore enable it to strengthen its position in the markets already present before tackling new countries. As labor laws vary greatly from one country to another, the barriers to entering a new market are indeed quite high.
With 700 employees in Paris, Berlin, Barcelona and London, PayFit intends to recruit 400 people this year in order to improve its product offering and integrate with more third-party platforms. Several partnerships have already been established with complementary players, such as Alan (mutual company), Skello (planning management) or Swile (meal voucher). On the product side, the platform which already offers various tools to manage vacations, facilitate reception, manage timesheets and track employee expenses will soon offer a way to manage annual performance reviews. The competition is nevertheless likely to be tough for the company. Several European companies are in fact already present in this highly competitive market, such as Personio in Germany or Factorial in Spain.