The modern payroll platform built for modern work

Today we’re excited to announce that Zeal has raised a $15M Series B to continue building the payroll platform that powers modern work. We’re proud to gain support from Portage and have existing investors Spark Capital and Commerce Ventures continuing their support in this round of funding. With these funds we’re doubling down on the automated, flexible, and native aspects of our platform to power payroll for innovative staffing companies, gig-work platforms, and HR service providers including Wonolo, Qwick, Lawtrades, Band of Hands, WorkGenius, and many more. 

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A new gig: Modern workers want modern work

There’s an old saying about work-life balance “do you work to live, or live to work?” Increasingly the answer for today’s workforce is more “work to live.” This trade-off is recognized by most workers seeking employment; outside of money-related motivations, flexibility is the most important driver. As a new generation of workers decides what’s important to them, employers are adapting to stay competitive and changing how they hire workers and structure work arrangements. We call this new generation of workers modern workers, and the new way they want to work modern work.

A combination of shrinking workforce and a post-pandemic increase in hiring has created a challenging hiring environment. As the US Chamber of Commerce states “We have a lot of jobs but not enough workers to fill them. If every unemployed person in the country found a job, we would still have millions of open jobs.“

Many businesses are turning to staffing companies, gig platforms, labor marketplaces, and HR service providers to help them find workers. These types of work arrangements are more appealing than direct hiring because they are fundamentally more flexible. On-demand labor companies, like Wonolo, are changing how employers and workers connect for all types of “shift work.” Traditional staffing companies, like Backlit, are helping fill the employment gap for employers who have more specific skills needs.

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Payday of today: Modern work requires modern payroll

Many companies embracing modern work are still using antiquated tools, built for a different era of work. Traditional work arrangements such as employees working for one company, at one location, with one rate of pay, frankly no longer “work.” Legacy payroll providers like ADP, Paychex, Paycor, Avionte, TempWorks, and Paycom are still the most used payroll platforms, despite the fact that they are unable to provide the solutions modern work requires.

This is why Zeal exists. We’re here to meet the needs of companies who provide modern work with modern payroll that's automated, flexible, and native.

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Modern payroll: Flexible, automated, and native

Over the years, we’ve talked to hundreds of modern work companies about the unique challenges they face. These recurring themes we heard can best be summarized into three themes: flexibility, automation, and native. A gig-worker might have dynamic shift schedules where they work for one company in one state in the morning, and then for a second company, in a second state in the afternoon. One HR service provider might want to pull funds directly from their customers bank account for payroll from one client, while another one prefers to fund the payroll themselves. Staffing companies have some jobs that offer earned wage access while others pay on less frequent schedules. Every company wants to pay their employees faster with easier ways to access their money.

To continue creating a modern payroll platform that’s flexible, automated, and native, we’re excited to announce new products.

• Remote I-9 with E-Verify. Stay compliant without lifting a finger. Our mobile I-9 product is the only remote, custom branded, electronically verified, and truly effortless employment verification solution.
• Custom paperwork. Create a streamlined employee onboarding solution by inserting whatever documents you need to get signed and completed directly into the flow.
• Benefits administration. Improve worker retention and avoid costly fines by offering mandated benefits without having to do benefits administration in-house.‍
• White-label mobile app. Launch a custom branded, mobile worker app in minutes. Give workers the freedom to access their pay and information anytime, and anywhere, conveniently from their phone.
• Paycards and digital wallets. Offer an Uber Money like experience in the white-label app, combining payroll information with a paycard and digital wallet. Unlock revenue from wage payments with every card swipe and dollar saved.
• Earned wage access: Create better worker experiences with accurately calculated daily pay and fast access to funds.

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Flexible: Complete control and customization

To start, modern work companies need a payroll platform that’s flexible enough to accommodate the infinite number of variations that could exist for their business. Zeal built and owns the underlying data model that powers our platform, including our tax engine that covers every jurisdiction in the United States. We then built our infrastructure to allow for complete control and customization of nearly every aspect of payroll. 

For example, if you want to build an entirely custom employee onboarding experience, you can do that using our APIs. Alternatively, if you want an optimized onboarding flow with the flexibility to turn on and off some sections of the onboarding, without having to use developers to build, you can do that too with our White-Label Components.

We continue to release products that enable control and customization such as our new custom paperwork solution that allows companies to create fillable and signable paperwork for employees to complete. Companies can create any paperwork such as HR handbooks, waivers, insurance forms, client forms, or offer letters and have employees complete them during onboarding or triggered by an event. We even make it simple to create sets of documents as well as rules for which employees should be shown which document sets.

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Automated: Put payroll on autopilot

Being flexible isn’t enough. The variations of unique payroll situations that modern work creates would be unsustainable if it was not paired with automation. Modern work needs automation across the board for 1099 and W-2 workers, from worker onboarding, to running payroll, to tax filings. Zeal helps companies put payroll on autopilot and lower operational costs with valuable automation at every step of the experience for employers and workers. For example, a worker who works in different states will need to complete tax paperwork for each state. Zeal automates the process of getting new tax paperwork when a worker takes a shift in a new jurisdiction. We also automate the process of the company completing their tax registration in every jurisdiction they operate in.

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Native: Create better worker experiences

Modern workers are digital and mobile natives who expect their payroll experience to be more like Amazon than AOL. Mobile is proving to be the experience that companies are able to differentiate themselves with. Providing the freedom to workers to instantly access what they need anytime, anywhere makes it easier to acquire new workers and improve retention.

Zeal offers the modern alternative to Web 1.0 portals created in the early 2000’s, which cannot keep up with the needs of modern workers, employers, or government regulation. For example, with staffing and gig-work it’s common that a worker will be at a job site that is nowhere near the location of the company actually employing them. Given new I-9 requirements for in-person document verification this can cause a real problem. With our remote I-9 with E-Verify product it is truly effortless for companies to confirm work eligibility. We have built a mobile, electronically verified I-9 experience where employees can submit their information and then invite another person physically near them to validate the information.

Employers wanting to improve worker retention recognize the best worker experience is in their own mobile app and brand. From onboarding to accessing paystubs and end-of-year paperwork, the best experience is one that is created in this era and offered natively. Our white-label mobile payroll app allows companies to provide workers with a beautiful, branded, mobile app in minutes — without writing a single line of code.

Faster pay is among the top requests from modern workers to their employers. As part of the white-label mobile app, Zeal is enabling employers to provide access to a paycard and digital wallet experience with earned wage access. Now, without writing any code, companies can deliver a banking experience (like Uber Money) that dramatically improves the worker experience and creates a new revenue opportunity.

With our new earned wage access functionality, employers can create daily pay experiences. Once a shift or day of work is completed Zeal calculates the workers gross-to-net taking into consideration taxes and other deductions. The correct payment can then be immediately sent to the workers paycard and digital wallet or external bank account.

Payroll is typically a cost center charging for access to the platform and for payroll processing. Zeal turns payroll into a profit center allowing employers to easily unlock revenue from their wage payments with every card swipe and dollar saved.

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Welcome to the era of modern payroll

Workers have changed, work has changed, but payroll has not; until now.

Zeal is the modern payroll platform that is purpose-built to handle modern work. Forget antiquated payroll providers, manual data entry, and bad worker experiences. You can create a better worker experience in minutes while automating payroll, taxes, and compliance for dynamic work arrangements. From onboarding to providing workers their final check, Zeal is the automated, flexible, and native platform that makes it simple to do payroll.

Please contact us if you’re interested in learning more about how modern payroll can help you lower operational costs, improve worker retention, and unlock new revenue.