Today we’re proud to announce additional funding led by Intuit Ventures, the venture capital fund of Intuit. Intuit’s QuickBooks payroll is the #1 payroll provider for small businesses.
The employment data ecosystem was built in an era of data silos. Even today, connectivity remains a challenge with the standard practices to share mission-critical employment data bottlenecked by flat files, emails, and even faxes. We are in the early stages of an industry-wide evolution toward a more connected, secure ecosystem allowing for innovative solutions across fintech, HR tech, compliance, insurance, and benefits to proliferate.
Today marks another step toward that inevitable, connected future. Just four months following our $40M Series B investment announcement, we have raised additional capital from Intuit Ventures. With over 1.6 million businesses utilizing Intuit’s payroll in fiscal 2022, Quickbooks is the leading payroll provider for small businesses. Their deep expertise in business software, combined with their proven track record of building 3rd party application marketplaces made them a natural fit for Finch as we continue to unify the employment data ecosystem.
"We are constantly looking to invest in innovative companies that are solving critical problems our customers face.” said Adam Coccari, Managing Director of Intuit Ventures. “Finch’s unified API currently enables our partners and small business customers to seamlessly connect apps to their data in Intuit QuickBooks payroll so the products that they love work together. We look forward to collaborating with Finch as they build deeper integrations to serve developers and our joint customers.”
We’re particularly excited by what this means for customers and end users — we are well on our way to building a future of employment that’s open, connected, and programmable. Today’s employers are demanding their systems of record speak to one another so they can get the best insights into their operations. By opening up the Employment Data Ecosystem, Finch can unlock the full potential of the suite of solutions that utilize HR, payroll and benefits data. This investment from Intuit, a major player in the employment data ecosystem, further strengthens our position as the leading employment data API.
Join our team to help shape the future of the employment ecosystem! To learn more about Finch’s solutions, talk to our sales team or sign up for free today.
The SHRM Annual Conference & Expo is one of the premiere events for HR professionals. This year, the conference is taking place at the Las Vegas Convention Center from Sunday, June 11 to Wednesday, June 14.
SHRM23 boasts a wide variety of education sessions, so teams can customize their schedules and attend panels that address individual challenges and business goals. With over 15,000 attendees and 650+ solutions providers, we’re excited for the chance to network with all of you and demonstrate Finch’s full capabilities in-person.
We’ll be set up at Booth 2330. Come say hello, and grab some limited-edition, light-up memo boards while you’re there!
Finch focuses on accessing the employment data that's housed in HR, payroll, and benefits systems.
Our universal API integrates with 200+ HR, payroll, and benefits systems to help employers streamline onboarding, optimize employee benefits, and unlock tax savings—amongst many other use cases.
With more than five million API calls every day and tens of thousands of employer connections, Finch is the #1 API for unlocking the vast potential of employment data.
When we’re not at Booth 2330, we’ll be checking out all the conference has to offer. We’ve looked through the SHRM23 content tracks and are happy to share the ones we’re most excited to attend:
Of course, we’re also excited for the recently announced moderated Q&A conversation with 42nd U.S. President Bill Clinton on the Main Stage.
Finch allows you to securely access your customers’ employment data across hundreds of HRIS and payroll systems with a single integration.
Employment data includes:
We recently raised $40 million in our Series B round, co-led by General Catalyst and Menlo Ventures with additional investments from QED, PruVen, and Altman Capital.
Finch is putting this capital to work by investing in both new and existing products—like our Data Refresh endpoint and recent upgrades to Finch Connect—and expanding our team to support customers and partners across HR, fintech, and benefits verticals.
We were named one of 2023’s Best Places to Work by Built In and recently included on GGV Capital’s API-First Index.
Follow us on Twitter and LinkedIn for our latest takes on the future of work.
Now in its fourth year, the HR Tech Awards program highlights HR technology companies that serve employers and employees with entries from North America, Europe, and Asia Pacific. The program has a rigorous judging component with a panel of independent practitioners, consultants, and educators who assess each submission.
Today, employment data is hosted across thousands of disparate systems and employers increasingly expect the tools they use to service their workforce to talk to each other with little friction. Given the fragmentation and rising expectations, employment applications are faced with the costly dilemma of either building 1:1 integrations in-house or losing business to competitors that offer compatibility. Finch helps solve the fragmentation challenge with a unified employment API, allowing businesses to cut costs and time spent on integrations, freeing them up to focus on value-added services that differentiate these applications instead.
Ben Eubanks, Chief Research Officer, Lighthouse Research & Advisory has this to say about Finch:
"Integration of systems and data is one of the most common complaints for HR software today. Finch is helping to turn complicated and technical into the possible, enabling the seamless passing of employee data among 200+ different systems via a single powerful integration.”
According to Lighthouse Research & Advisory data, more than 5,000 providers exist across the HR technology landscape, with more startups and innovators entering the industry every single day. This year, the HR Tech Awards recognizes approximately 1% of those firms for creating solutions that solve problems their customers care about.
The world is moving towards more standardized, open, and interconnected data systems. However, employment data infrastructure remains complex, closed, and fragmented. Finch is dedicated to bringing forth a connected future of employment and is honored to have its technology recognized.
To get a free consultation regarding what Finch can do for your business, talk to our sales team, or if you’d like to test it out on your own, you can sign up for a free account today.
We’re excited to announce that On Deck ranked Finch #2 on its Top 40 Companies of 2023 list, reinforcing our vision to build a future where employment is connected and programmable.
On Deck launched its first fellowship in 2019. To date, the organization has helped start and accelerate hundreds of companies, which are now worth over $9 billion. What started as a passion project has grown into a worldwide network and community of the most ambitious people around the globe.
In an effort to consistently showcase the best and most promising On Deck companies, every year the organization publishes its list of top performers. On Deck considers a number of factors during the selection process, including funding raised, valuation, and momentum over the last year. The nature and importance of the problems companies are tackling also factors into the team’s decision. This year’s list includes 40 companies that have demonstrated significant traction over the past 12 months.
Being recognized as a high performer by On Deck underscores the market need for an open employment data ecosystem.
The workforce is the backbone of the U.S. economy. From retirement benefits to health insurance to mental health, employers’ responsibilities have significantly increased over the years. Despite the challenges posed by the macro backdrop, U.S. employment has been growing steadily, with the unemployment rate at its lowest in 54 years.
Unfortunately, the employment ecosystem faces significant challenges due to a lack of data accessibility. Over 580 million U.S. employment records and $15 trillion of funds are processed across more than 20,000 employment data systems, including payroll, HRIS, benefits administration, ATS, and others. The ecosystem also lacks connectivity, with sensitive records mostly passed via manual data entry, SFTP, and unsecured emails.
We are here to change that by making it easy to read and write employment data at scale with our unified employment API. With Finch, applications can instantly integrate with over 200 employment systems to provide products and services to employers. To learn more, visit tryfinch.com.
Finch is excited to announce that we’ve been included on GGV Capital's API-First Index.
GGV Capital is a global investment firm with $9.2 billion under management. It tracks the activity of VC deals for 120+ private companies to find those with the most promising approaches to API commercialization.
GGV’s API-First Index focuses on API-led startups whose primary goal is developing and delivering scalable APIs, so their clients can build better products and services while improving the agility of their development process.
GGV recently expanded the index to include those that have each raised over $50 million in funding.
The index underscores the critical role APIs play in shaping the future of business and technology by highlighting the increasing importance of APIs as drivers of innovation and growth.
“We are going all-in on API companies because they will fundamentally simplify software development. APIs will allow developers to offload lower-value and time-consuming components of application development so they can focus on higher-value work,” states GGV.
The API-First Index delivers a valuable benchmark for companies that want to keep pace with the rapidly evolving API landscape, and provides insights into emerging API trends to help businesses and investors identify potential partners and investment opportunities.
In 2022, the companies listed on the API-First Index raised approximately $2.1 billion in total funding, a 70% decrease from 2021, but 19% higher than 2020 and 45% higher than 2019.
“2021 was an outlier year for the VC industry broadly, including API-first companies. We believe it’s important to establish that 2021—catalyzed by historically low interest rates and rapid digital adoption spurred by the COVID-19 pandemic—was a once-in-a-decade moment,” said GGV in its 2022 Year in Review.
The context provided around VC activity in 2021 is important. For example, the number of deals in 2022 also decreased, but the average size of deals increased to approximately $60 million—50% higher than deals in 2019 and 2020. It could be that investors are targeting more mature companies and later-stage funding rounds, since these companies require bigger investments to scale their operations.
While the startup ecosystem has continued to see more diminished funding since 2021, the increase from the preceding years is a good sign. VC funding certainly hasn’t dried up and could be poised for a slow rebound as investors focus on making more informed decisions about companies’ potential for revenue growth.
Finch’s inclusion on the API-First Index demonstrates that the demand for employment data portability will continue to shape the future of the API space.
Employment data includes:
An employment data API like Finch provides secure access to sources of employment data—human resource information systems and payroll systems—with a single integration.
Employment data APIs make it possible for B2B applications across a variety of industries to leverage employment data to fuel innovative products and seamless customer experiences. Here are just some of the ways B2B applications are deploying employment data to change the future of workforce management, business operations, commercial finance, tax, and insurance:
Employment data APIs will play an increasingly important role in shaping the future of business as companies of every size, shape, and vertical increasingly demand integrated, data-driven experiences from the B2B applications that serve them.
Finch is a universal API for employment data.
We’re singularly positioned to provide you with mission-critical infrastructure for employment data across a wide range of verticals—including read-and-write compatibility with 200+ employment systems covering more than 88% of U.S. employers—and enable data transfers between employers and applications.
With more than five million API calls every day and tens of thousands of employer connections, Finch is the trusted HRIS and payroll API solution for discerning B2B applications. For more details, visit tryfinch.com.
Today we’re launching Finch and announcing our $3.5M seed financing led by General Catalyst with participation from Menlo Ventures, YCombinator, BoxGroup, Homebrew, Clocktower Ventures, and many incredible angels including the founders of Brex, Ramp, Mercury, Vouch, Digits, Human Interest, and executives from Plaid.
APIs are changing many industries and taking advantage of the paradigm shift from closed systems to open data access. My co-founder, Ansel, and I have witnessed this first-hand while working at our previous companies: I was an early engineer and led Product at Smartcar (a16z and NEA), an API for connected vehicles; Ansel was previously an investor at Bond and Kleiner, making investments in API companies like Plaid.
Ansel and I initially teamed up to build an embedded lending infrastructure platform, Extend, and allow vendors to easily offer lending products to their customers. This process involved everything from pulling data from multiple sources to creating A/B tests for credit models. We had several funding sources and partners lined up until COVID hit. Suddenly, customers dropped left and right. I guess no one wanted to launch a lending product during a global pandemic? 🤷
As luck would have it, during that time one of our partners approached us to talk about offering PPP (Paycheck Protection Program) loans to the SMBs on their platform. We started reaching out to legacy and tech-enabled payroll and HR providers to discuss integrations and support the businesses that were in need. Most did not reply and those that did wanted us to present a PowerPoint proposal to different teams within the org. As a developer, we were looking for a Segment, Plaid, or Stripe-like developer experience, but we woefully discovered that such an API infrastructure did not exist.
Payroll and HR systems are one of the last business systems without modern API infrastructure, yet they are critical to the operations of every business. These systems serve as the source of truth for employee records, organizational structure, and crucial fund flows. Many industries depend on accurate employee and organization data — from accounting to retirement planning to benefits administration.
Due to the importance and extensibility of these systems, developers expect a simple developer experience, but there are no self-serve APIs in the industry. Many developers have been forced to resort to CSV uploads, FTP, or be added as Third-Party Admins. Other companies have instead opted to spend millions in development costs, alongside years of business development efforts, to build one-off integrations. For example, the co-founder and CTO of Human Interest, a prominent 401(k) provider, said that building payroll and HR integration was one of the most time-consuming parts of their engineering effort, but it was essential to their success. This lack of connectivity in the industry is responsible for high administrative costs for employers, increased lock-in by legacy providers, and prohibitively high barriers for innovators.
We built Finch to change that.
Finch does the hard work of integrating with payroll and HR systems to expose a clean, unified API interface to developers. We build the infrastructure for many systems that touch employee records and facilitate data from employers to applications.
We are supporting a growing set of compelling use cases in both FinTech and HRTech, including — 401(k) providers, headcount planning, SMB lending, FP&A software, R&D tax credits, security compliance (SOC-II, etc.), employment verification, health benefits, and many more.
An example of an application built on Finch is Mainstreet, which automates business tax credits for startups. At the beginning of the onboarding flow, Mainstreet prompts an employer to connect their payroll and HR system through Finch’s front-end module. They use Finch to pull past payroll runs, employee locations, employee titles, and more to provide the highest amount of tax savings to an employer. Finch has been the infrastructure powering over $65M in credits back to startups and SMBs.
This fundraising round is only the beginning of the journey and new use cases are yet to be discovered. As the nature of employment shifts over the coming years, Finch will empower innovators to build better products and experiences for a changing workforce, whether that is supporting the next wave of PPP loans or building a new employee benefit.
If this work excites you, we are hiring a diverse group of people to help us build, and if you are building something in the space, we would love to get in touch!
At Finch, our mission is to empower innovators to access the global employment ecosystem. Since starting the company in late 2020, we’ve been excited about building a future in which the employment sector is both connected and programmable.
Today, we’re thrilled to announce that Finch has raised a $15 million Series A, led by Menlo Ventures, alongside General Catalyst, Bedrock, Y Combinator, and Sempervirens. We also brought on founders and executives from Gusto, ADP, Namely, Justworks, Workday, and other employment providers. Additionally, we are excited to have Matt Murphy, Managing Director at Menlo Ventures, join our board of directors, and Croom Beatty, Partner at Menlo Ventures, and Alex Tran, Managing Director at General Catalyst, join as Board Observers.
The employment sector has undergone an important transformation over the past two years. Employers, financial technology, benefit providers, and HR applications have had to meet the rising expectations of today’s workforce. Adapting to these expectations requires robust connectivity to employment systems (HR, payroll, and benefits). Given the industry’s fragmentation (there are 6,000+ employment providers in the U.S.) and the complexity of the underlying data and functions, such an infrastructure did not exist prior to Finch.
Without that infrastructure, many companies have been forced to resort to CSV uploads and FTP. Other companies have opted to spend millions in development costs, alongside years of business development efforts, to build one-off integrations. For example, the co-founder and CTO of Human Interest, a prominent 401(k) provider, said that building payroll and HR connectivity was one of the most time-consuming parts of their engineering effort, but it was essential to their success.
What they needed was pre-built, universal connectivity that would allow them to reallocate their focus to their core product. Over the past year, Finch took on that responsibility, integrating with employment systems across HR, payroll, and benefits. We now provide mission-critical infrastructure powering applications across hundreds of B2B fintech, benefits, HR, and enterprise verticals. After a little over a year since our public launch, Finch has achieved multiple major milestones:
Finch will continue expanding our connectivity and building blocks to enable our customers to create more innovation for employers and employees. With this new financing, we are focusing on three critical components of our infrastructure:
We are grateful to our team members, customers, and investors who have supported us through this journey. While we are incredibly proud of how far we have come, we are still in the early innings of the employment sector’s digital transformation. As we look to support the massive growth and change that will entail, we’ll accelerate our investments in building infrastructure that enables an open, friendly, and secure data ecosystem.
If you want to have an incredible impact and the opportunity to change an industry, join our team. We’re hiring for all roles!
Transform 2023, the premiere HR conference for business and people leaders, entrepreneurs, and investors, is running from Monday, March 27 to Wednesday, March 29 at the MGM Grand in Las Vegas, Nevada.
Previously known as HR Transform, this year, the conference has expanded the experience to include global leadership, entrepreneurs, and investors. Transform 2023 will offer opportunities to foster more in-depth relationship building, inform modern enterprise policies and programs from a broader perspective, and increase the scale of tech innovation and business transformation. Their goal is to “transform the workforce, workplace, and work of the future.”
We’ll be set up at Booth 501. Come say hello, and grab some limited-edition swag while you’re there!
Our universal API integrates with hundreds of HR, payroll, and benefits systems to help employers streamline onboarding, optimize employee benefits, and unlock tax savings, among many other use cases.
With more than five million API calls every day and tens of thousands of employer connections, Finch is the #1 employment data API.
We’ve browsed through all the inspired offerings on the Transform 2023 Agenda and highlighted events the Finch team is most excited about below:
We recently raised $40 million in our Series B round, co-led by General Catalyst and Menlo Ventures with additional investments from QED, PruVen, and Altman Capital.
Finch is putting this capital to work by investing in both new and existing products, and expanding our team to support customers and partners across HR, fintech, and benefits verticals. Follow us on Twitter and LinkedIn for our latest takes on the future of work.
Today, we're excited to announce that Finch has raised $40M in our Series B round, co-led by General Catalyst and Menlo Ventures, with additional investments from QED, PruVen, and Altman Capital.
The workforce is the backbone of the U.S. economy. From retirement to health insurance to mental health, the responsibilities of employers have increased significantly over the years. Despite the challenges posed by the macro backdrop, U.S. employment has been growing steadily, with the unemployment rate at its lowest in 54 years.
However, the employment ecosystem faces significant challenges due to a lack of data accessibility. Over 580M+ U.S. employment records and $15T of funds are processed across 20,000+ employment data systems, including payroll, HRIS, benefits administration, and others. Moreover, the ecosystem lacks necessary connectivity, with records mainly passed via manual data entry, SFTP, and emails filled with sensitive information. We are here to change that by making it easy to access data and direct payments across the sector with our unified employment API.
We've made significant progress since announcing our Series A just eight months ago—
With this funding, we will accelerate connectivity across the employment data ecosystem and help employers and employees use the products and services they need to grow and thrive. We're putting this capital to work by investing in new and existing products and expanding our team to support customers and partners across the HR, Fintech, and Benefits verticals.
Our vision is to build a future where employment is connected and programmable. With Finch, applications can instantly gain compatibility with 200+ employment systems to provide products and services to employers.
Join our team to help shape the future of employment!
We’re excited to announce that GGV Capital, in partnership with Crunchbase, has named Finch to its inaugural Embedded Fintech 50, a list recognizing the most promising fintech companies in the eyes of startup investors.
GGV Capital convened 57 other investment firms to nominate and vote on the 50 honorees. Having raised more than $12 billion collectively, the Embedded Fintech 50 demonstrates the enthusiasm of venture capital investors in the growth and innovation of this sector. In celebration, honorees will ring the Closing Bell at Nasdaq MarketSite today.
People are the most important component of an organization, yet the data required to understand a company’s investment in its workforce is siloed across payroll, HR and benefits systems,” said Jeremy Zhang, CEO at Finch. “Our technology is addressing an important challenge in the employment data ecosystem as companies have been unable to easily derive and act on insights from those disparate data sources, until now. We are grateful to be recognized in this inaugural list and look forward to driving the next generation of automation in a space that has been underserved thus far by the technology industry.
For the inaugural list, 175 companies were nominated, and 50 were selected through a voting process that required the nomination of portfolio and non-portfolio companies. Nomination criteria included companies with a primary product focus on fintech, U.S. as a primary market, and Series A stage. Embedded fintech is defined as financial service platforms or financial service providers that integrate into commercial or financial service platforms.
Embedded fintech is a bright spot in today’s market, and it is exciting to see how companies are democratizing access to financial services through technology,” said Hans Tung, managing partner at GGV Capital. “We are excited for the continued development of the embedded fintech landscape and further creative innovations to come. Congratulations to the Embedded Fintech 50 honorees!
To see the complete list of the 50 honorees, visit embeddedfintech50.com.
To get started with our award-winning API platform, sign up for a free account at https://dashboard.tryfinch.com/signup.