Key Findings & Highlights:

Papaya Global, headquartered in New York, NY, is a technology company providing fintech and workforce management solutions, including global EOR. 

The company was established in 2016 and began offering global EOR services, adding its first clients in 2017. In 2018, it began offering managed international payroll services through its proprietary aggregator platform, which supports ~160 countries. In 2019, it expanded its services, adding independent contractor management support. In July 2020, the firm made its first acquisition, Israel-based HRIS technology provider Mensch, Inc. The investment integrated Mensch’s comprehensive human capital management platform into Papaya Global’s service and technology offering. In November 2021, the organization acquired a small work connectivity firm, NickNack, enhancing its technology solution for onboarding remote teams.

Papaya Global acquired a digital money transfer service, Azimo, in March 2022. The acquisition delivers money transfer licenses, making Papaya Global the only payroll/EOR vendor regulated and licensed to transfer workforce payments to authorities and works directly without using a third-party payment provider. The payment technology, built into a single workforce platform, includes an interface that simplifies and gives clients greater payment transparency and control versus current payment services and traditional banks.

Papaya’s vision is a single source of truth for the entire workforce, based on actionable analytics and the enablement of hiring, onboarding, and paying people worldwide in one platform.

Since its inception, Papaya Global has raised total equity funding of ~$450m over seven rounds. Following its most recent funding round in September 2021, the company valuation is ~$3.7bn. Fifteen investors fund Papaya Global.

Papaya Global’s workforce solutions comprise three primary areas:

• Employer of Record (EOR) - full-scale employment services for organizations without an established in-country legal entity, including professional support, i.e., legal, benefits, and equity expertise
• PayrollPlus - AI-enabled SaaS providing end-to-end payroll, payments, benefits, and equity processing for organizations with an established legal entity across ~160 countries
• Contractor Solutions - payments, contractor management, private entrepreneur, agent of record, and benefits solutions for paying contractors worldwide with flexible funding and various payout currency options.

The company is a founding Global Employment Innovation Organization (GEIO) member. The group, announced in February 2023, focuses on promoting, maturing, and expanding the ecosystem for global employment service providers by bringing industry leaders together to help ensure a better employment services industry for all stakeholders. The group focuses on and supports the remote work revolution through industry-wide cooperation and best practices to ensure providers have a solid foundation for a prosperous future.

Papaya Global offers its global EOR services to ~1,830 clients and ~ 57,000 active workers in ~160 countries.

Within its Workforce Solutions offerings, Papaya Global's tech-driven EOR services comprise:

• Dedicated local, in-country experts who manage all worker aspects, including payroll, financial, legal, and compliance-related tasks, including:
  • Onboarding - seamless onboarding experiences for entry-level and senior hires, supporting multiple employees at a time with self-service platform accessibility
  • Payments - timely payments guaranteed without challenging cut-off dates and classified as payroll with employer identification, providing a seamless conversion of local payroll data with the Payments Cloud Connector or APIs. Papaya Global maintains Tier 1 banking rails for fast, efficient payroll via J.P. Morgan
• Ongoing HR support
• Benefits management and administration
• Worker classification & compliance checks
• Tax filing assistance
• Customized payroll ledger, per financial system requirements
• Integration to client systems (HRIS, VMS, T&A, Expenses Management, and ERP)
• Global equity plan management, including restricted stock units (RSU), employee stock ownership plans (ESOP), and employee stock purchase plans (ESPP)
• Statutory and custom reports for employers.