[Funding alert] SalaryBox raises $4M from Y-Combinator, AME Cloud Ventures, Gokul Rajaram, others

Gurugram-based fintech startup SalaryBox on Wednesday announced that it has raised $4 million in a new seed round from new and existing investors including Y-Combinator, Jerry Yang’s AME Cloud Ventures, Soma Capital and 2AM Ventures. 

Other key investors in the latest funding round include US-based angel and seed investors Gokul Rajaram, Doordash Executive; Sriram Krishnan, former Tinder and Spotify Executive; and Anand Chandrasekaran, former Facebook Executive.

SalaryBox is a mobile app-based employee management solution that simplifies the staff attendance and payroll processes for small businesses. The startup said it will utilise the funds to grow its team, invest in building new products and features, and further expand its user base. 

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SalaryBox had earlier raised a pre-seed funding in May 2021 from GSF Accelerator and marquee individual investors like Alok Mittal, CEO, Indifi Technologies; Amit Ranjan, ex-Co-founder, SlideShare; Sumit Jain, Co-founder, Commonfloor; Gaurav Kapur, Founder of Oaktree Sports; and Surjendu Kuila, Co-founder, Zopper.

Founded in May 2020 by IIT Roorkee alumni Nikhil Goel and Peeyush Goyal, SalaryBox has grown to manage payroll for over 1 million employees on its app. The startup further aims to scale up its user base to more than 10 million employees by the end of next year (2022). 

Nikhil Goel, Co-founder and CEO of SalaryBox said,

“We are excited to see such a strong validation from both our clients and our investors alike, towards our mission to enable financial inclusion for India’s 300 million-plus blue-collar workforce. Salarybox will help these workers open their first salary account, while simultaneously making it much easier for small businesses to pay their staff accurately and on time.”

“We are now embarking on an exciting next phase of our growth and will utilise these funds to further strengthen our tech, marketing and operational teams, build new products and scale our user base over the next year,” Nikhil added.

Gokul Rajaram said, “The SalaryBox team impressed me with their outstanding product-market fit, which is evident from the tremendous growth in their user base in such a little time. With more Indian businesses growing comfortable with using apps to manage their business, I believe SalaryBox has a market-winning product on hand and I’m truly excited to support their mission.”

Jerry Yang, Founding Partner at AME Cloud Ventures stated,  

“We are truly excited to support Salarybox’s vision of building the first salary bank account for India’s 300 million-plus blue-collar employees. Nikhil and team have the right mix of operating expertise and the passion to turn this vision into reality.”

Using the SalaryBox app, business owners can manage their payroll end-to-end, from attendance records and salary payouts, to filing of mandatory compliances. The app will use this data to create a digital professional identity for the 300 million blue-collar workers who typically earn their salaries or wages in cash.

Together with these digital identities, the shift from cash wages to bank transfers will bring these workers all the benefits of financial inclusion; allowing these workers to avail credit or loans at more favourable terms and lower interest rates. SalaryBox will soon be launching the "Earned wage access" feature to solve this need of the market.