Kenyan startup WorkPay raises $2.1 million in seed funding

WORKPAY – a Kenyan start-up which provides cloud-based HR, payroll and workforce management systems – has raised $2.1 million in funds from Kepple Africa, Y Combinator and other investors.

The startup was founded by Paul Kimani and Jackson Kibigo in 2017 and known as TozzaPlus. It was initially a full-solutions ERP software company, but in 2018 rebranded and streamlined to focus solely on human resource management software.

Last year, WorkPay was selected for the fourth cohort of the Google for Startups Accelerator Africa. In March it accessed $150,000 in funds from Y Combinator’s Winter Batch. In this seed round, Y Combinator made follow-up investments.

The startup works with more than 250 SMEs to pay 20,000 employees monthly. It saves between five and 10 percent of payroll costs by eliminating fraud and errors in payroll systems.