This year has already seen a number of developments for providers of global payroll services (companies that help businesses pay employees across borders). We take a look at some of the key developments for these providers and how they align with cross-border payments trends.

In some cases, global payroll companies partner with third-party payment processors to help them enable payouts to employees. Papaya Global, for example, acquired London-based remittance services provider Azimo in 2022, which provided it with licences and technology to provide workforce payments globally (as we discussed at the time with Papaya Global CEO Eynat Guez). In late 2023, US-based Zebec partnered with crypto companies Circle and Stellar for a platform that enables companies to offer salaries with stablecoins and also support cross-border remittances. This platform was launched in Japan in January 2024.

Elsewhere, Rippling has built its own native in-house processing platform, which it claims enables it to process payroll faster and provide a clearer account of any taxes incurred from payments to other jurisdictions. These developments align with a growing demand for faster international payments, which has traditionally been more dominant for the consumer side but has increasingly crept into B2B.

Several of the developments in Q1 were focused on regions in Asia, with Zebec launching its real-time payroll offering in Japan, Rippling opening a new Australia office and BDO India partnering with Chennai-based Ramco Systems to offer a new digital payroll platform. Artificial intelligence (AI) has also been another growing trend, with payroll startup Borderless AI receiving $27m in seed funding to help it automate the process of paying international workers, while Deel recently launched an AI assistant to answer payroll-related queries.

Global payroll companies have seen large amounts of funding in recent years, with US-based Remote seeing a $300m Series C in 2022, while Deel announced in January 2023 it had been valued at $12bn. As companies continue to grow their workforces and the world adopts flexible working structures, this space will continue to hold interest for cross-border payments providers going forward.

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Joe Baker

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Joe is a Senior Copywriter at FXC Intelligence, writing and editing reports, news and analysis to support the company’s weekly content and client projects. Before joining FXC Intelligence, he worked as a B2B copywriter, journalist and editor covering a broad range of topics, including technology, transport, retail and the food and beverage industries. He has a BA in Philosophy from the University of Warwick.