Cadana Secures $7.4 Million to Enable Seamless, Compliant Payroll Services in Emerging Markets for Global Hiring Platforms
20 Junio 2024 - 9:44AM
Cadana, a global payroll technology company that specializes in
emerging markets, today announced it raised $7.4 million in funding
to date led by Costanoa Ventures with participation by Better
Tomorrow Ventures and 500 Startups. Cadana has purpose-built
payroll APIs and a white-label product suite that global talent
marketplaces and HR platforms can use to improve their payroll
services for workers across more than 30 emerging economies
including Nigeria, Ghana, Brazil, Pakistan, UAE and Nepal. The
funds will be used to expand its team, accelerate product
development and scale into new markets.
The global freelancer market is a $1.3 trillion
industry fuelled by over 200 million global knowledge workers,
creating a need for solutions that automate payroll and streamline
employment and tax regulations globally. However, most solutions
currently don’t build for the financial infrastructure of emerging
markets where employment laws are more nuanced. It puts companies
at risk of breaking local labor laws, while the experience for
workers also suffers. Remote workers often wait up to seven days
for wages and then lose 5-7% in remittance fees, which is a problem
that disproportionately affects emerging economies.
“Both my co-founder and I grew up in emerging
markets, so we understand the unique challenges for workers in
these regions and the difficulties receiving timely payments,” said
Albert Owusu-Asare, CEO and co-founder of Cadana. “Workers in these
regions support multiple family members and delays in payments and
high remittance fees are unnecessary setbacks. Most solutions focus
on streamlining the experience for the payroll administrator with
little emphasis on the worker experience. We’ve built payroll
solutions that facilitate a better experience for both.”
Traditionally, global hiring platforms rely on
fragmented third-party affiliates with antiquated processes, to
navigate the nuances of employment law in emerging markets, leading
to inefficient operations and increased legal risks. Cadana’s APIs
and white-label products allow global workforce platforms to easily
manage payments and payroll with seamless integration into their
existing systems. Cadana built a network of highly localized
infrastructure to ensure compliance with all local employment and
tax regulations, reducing fraud and liabilities from the
inadvertent breaking of local employment laws.
“While the U.S. has seen a surge in tech platforms
aiming to streamline payroll and benefits, the vast majority fall
far short of addressing the unique challenges faced by employees
and employers in emerging markets,” said Amy Cheetham, partner at
Costanoa Ventures. “Albert and Ameer have built exactly that, a
purpose-built suite of white label products and APIs for emerging
markets to power the next generation pay experience for millions of
workers. This is why we’re so excited about what Cadana can do for
the global payroll industry.”
Over the past 18 months, Cadana has powered more
than $150 million in transactions across 32 countries while saving
workers more than $2.5 million in fees. The benefits of Cadana
include:
- Developer-friendly no-code white-label products, low-code UI
components and modular APIs to directly manage contracts,
gross-to-net calculations, payroll, payments, invoices, etc.
- Real-time payments with fees under $3 compared to the standard
time of one week with 5-7% in fees.
- Direct connection to millions of local banks, mobile money
accounts and e-wallets in Africa, LATAM and Asia.
- Consolidated Employer of Record (EOR) services to eliminate the
need to work across fragmented in-country partners.
- Options for workers to withdraw funds via more than eight
methods including mobile money, bank accounts, cards, etc.
- Opportunities for workers to invest in USD-denominated assets
like stocks and access to virtual cards, USD balances, cash
advances, etc.
Cadana was founded in 2021 by Albert Owusu-Asare,
an immigrant from Ghana, and Ameer Shujjah, an immigrant from
Pakistan. Prior to Cadana, both co-founders started their careers
working in fintech for some of the world’s leading financial
institutions.
For more information about Cadana, please visit
cadanapay.com.
About Cadana:Founded in 2021,
Cadana is a global payroll technology company that specializes in
emerging markets. Cadana’s products are used by the world’s largest
talent marketplaces and HR companies to launch better payroll
services for workers in 32 emerging markets, including Nigeria,
Ghana, Brazil, the Philippines and less common ones like Senegal,
Pakistan, UAE and Nepal. The company was founded by Albert
Owusu-Asare, an immigrant from Ghana, and Ameer Shujjah, an
immigrant from Pakistan, who both started their careers working in
fintech for the world’s leading financial institutions.
About Costanoa Ventures:Founded in
2012, Costanoa Ventures partners with technical and product
founders as early as company formation, with a focus on apps and
infrastructure in data, dev and fintech. Costanoa is a long-term
partner to entrepreneurs who want hands-on help in their earliest
company stages on all things go-to-market and talent. For more
information, please visit www.costanoa.vc.
Media Contact:Angela
PetersenSamsonPRangela@samsonpr.com