Deel Raises $14M In Series A For Remote Worker Payroll Services

Deel, which works in payroll for remote workers, is coming off a Series A funding round for $14 million, CNBC reported Thursday (May 21).

The round is led by Andreessen Horowitz, whose general partner Anish Acharya will now take a seat on the company’s board.

While venture capital deals have traditionally been finished via person-to-person talks, the involved parties finished the deal for Deel over the weekend all on videoconferencing, said Dan Westgarth, Deel COO.

The company, founded in 2018, has focused since its inception on connecting remote workers with payment solutions. The company uses just a single software for this purpose as opposed to a multitude like many others have used in the past. Some other companies can end up using as many as 10 separate providers to make payments.

The success of Deel comes at a time when other venture capital entities have faced pullback as the pandemic makes their financial situations uncertain. Funding for FinTech firms, for example, has gone down 37 percent, landing at 6 percent.

But Deel allows companies to easily hire and pay workers regardless of where they’re located, which got it more of a foothold in the industry when the coronavirus pandemic hit.

In addition to payroll, the company also works to help clients gain access to healthcare and benefits via its services.

Remote work has become ubiquitous during the pandemic as companies have been forced to deal with shutdowns. The problems have compounded because of the abrupt transition away from traditional office methods of payment, now inaccessible for many companies trying to do things from home.

The modern economy, reliant as it is on gig workers, has seen frustrations with payments even before the pandemic — 55 percent of U.K. gig workers have reported annoyances trying to chase late payments.

Now, earnings among gig workers are falling across the board as late payments pile up.

The future could end up seeing new methods that move away from old stalwarts like paper check payments.