When we started Salsa, we set out to make payroll easier - easier to build, easier to operate, and easier for businesses and workers to rely on. That hasn’t changed. But what we’ve learned over the past two years is that building the best payroll infrastructure isn’t just about clean APIs or fast onboarding. It’s also about how closely we work with our partners, and how much they can depend on us when things get complicated.
Today, I’m excited to share that we’ve raised an oversubscribed $20 million Series A, led by Altos Ventures, with participation from all of our existing investors: SemperVirens, Greycroft, Definition, and Better Tomorrow Ventures. We were thrilled to see our customers invest into the round, too, deepening our partnerships. This round brings our total funding to $30 million, and it allows us to double down on the things that make Salsa different: our speed, our hands-on approach, and our ability to support platforms in the most complex industries.
What we’ve learned (and why it matters)
Embedded payroll isn’t just a technical challenge. It’s an operational one. It’s a trust one. And for the platforms we work with, it’s a promise they’re making to their customers.
What we’re hearing - again and again - is that Salsa is winning not only because of our differentiated infrastructure, but because of how we show up as a partner.
- We’re more hands-on than others. When HoneyBook began building payroll, we didn’t just support from afar - we embedded ourselves alongside their team, sitting in their office to help them craft the product experience they wanted for their member base. They went live with their first customers 17 days later. If you’re considering launching a product this year, we’re accepting new challenger applications to break this speed record :)
- We’re more responsive. When partners hit edge cases, we don’t ask them to fit into a rigid box - we help them find the right path, even if it means rolling up our sleeves and building something new. That’s our version of partnership.
- We’re better at handling complexity. From healthcare platforms supporting millions of caregivers, to businesses with mixed compensation models, Salsa is built to support the stuff others can’t.
This approach - high-touch support, flexible infrastructure, and real-world expertise - is why platforms trust us to power a core part of their product.
The momentum
Since our Seed round:
- We’ve grown over 10x year-over-year
- Our partners include platforms serving millions of workers in healthcare, personal services, SMB, and more
- We now power payroll products serving workers across all 50 U.S. states and Canada with a single API to serve both markets
- We’ve earned a reputation in the market for fast launches that don’t suck up engineering and product resources
We’ve become the infrastructure of choice for vertical platforms that need more than a generic solution. Because they know we’ll not only help them launch - but stand beside them as they scale.
What makes Salsa different
We built Salsa to make launching and running payroll radically easier. That means:
- Speed - Partners get to market in weeks, not quarters
- Flexibility - We handle edge cases and real-world complexity so you don’t have to build your own workarounds to support the things your customers need
- Support - We go beyond the docs and Slack channels - we’re true partners
- Infrastructure built by payroll veterans - We’ve built payroll engines before, we’ve scaled payroll before, we’ve seen all the edge cases, and we built the platform we always wished we had - with over 300 years of experience on our team.
Most of all, we care deeply about our partners’ success. And that shows up in how we build, how we support, and how we show up - especially when things get hard.
What’s next
This raise lets us go further:
- Investing in AI and automation to reduce our partners’ operational lift even more
- Expanding the team to support our growing partner base
- Doubling down on flexibility and vertical depth - supporting more edge cases, more pay models, more of the things that make real businesses unique
We’re building payroll infrastructure that does more for you. And we’re just getting started.
Join us
We’re ready to help platforms everywhere turn on embedded payroll - not just as a feature, but as a whole new business and revenue driver.
We’re hiring across engineering, design, product, partnerships, support, and more. Want to do meaningful work with people who care deeply about doing it right? Join our team.
To our customers, partners, investors, and team: thank you for trusting us, building with us, and believing in what payroll can be. We’re proud of what we’ve built so far - and even more excited for what comes next.
Let’s go.
– John
Co-founder & CEO, Salsa
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