YC-backed Central enters the payroll wars, processing $75M+ with hundreds of customers taking on Gusto, Rippling & Deel.
SAN FRANCISCO — Central, the first autonomous back-office platform built for startups, today announced $8.6M in seed funding led by First Round Capital, with participation from Y Combinator, Ritual Capital, Multimodal Ventures, Alumni Ventures, Surgepoint Capital, and several prominent founders, including Kulveer Taggar (Co-Founder & CEO at Zeus), JJ Fliegelman (Co-Founder & CTO at WayUp), and Richard Aberman (Co-Founder and CPO at WePay).
Designed for the next generation of companies that prefer to build rather than perform back-office tasks, Central utilizes AI to fully automate payroll, benefits, state registrations, HR, accounting, taxes, government filings, and more. Unlike traditional HR/finance tools, Central acts like a teammate in Slack, handling operations behind the scenes and eliminating the need for founders to learn complex systems or manage to-do lists.
“Founders don’t start companies to get buried in payroll forms or state compliance filings,” said Josh Wymer, co-founder and CEO of Central. “This funding allows us to scale what’s working, as hundreds of startups already rely on Central as their AI-powered back office. We’re growing fast because founders want to focus on building, not bureaucracy. Central gives them the operational leverage of a full HR and finance team, without having to hire one.”
Central competes with decacorn and centicorn companies in this space, such as Rippling ($16B), Deel ($12B), Gusto ($10B), ADP ($122B), and Workday ($60B). Its AI-first platform offers a modern and compliant alternative to the fragmented back-office stack, automating everything from state registrations and tax filings to payroll, benefits, and employee onboarding. Purpose-built for high-growth companies, it eliminates operational drag, helps avoid costly compliance mistakes, and frees teams to scale faster. Customers simply message Central in Slack when they need help, and the system handles the rest.
Central is rapidly becoming the back-office platform of choice for hundreds of high-growth companies like Wordware, Wyndly, Poseidon Aerospace, Bitesight, Abel Police, Ulysses, Deepnight, Blaxel, and Diode. To date, it’s processed over $75 million in payroll, with nearly one-third of customers switching from legacy providers such as Rippling, Gusto, and Deel, underscoring demand for a truly modern, AI-native alternative.
“Every founder hits a moment where back-office operations start getting in the way of building the business,” said Meka Asonye, Partner at First Round Capital. “Central is the first solution we’ve seen that doesn’t just streamline the work, it eliminates it. The team possesses a rare combination of firsthand experience, technical expertise, and a profound understanding of what startups truly need. We’re proud to back Central as they redefine what modern, AI-powered operations should look like.”
With this new round of funding, Central plans to scale its platform, expand its expert support team, and continue building features & integrations that eliminate friction from the startup back office.
About Central
Central is the first autonomous back-office platform purpose-built for startups. Designed for founders who use Slack and want to stay focused on building and not bureaucracy. Central automates payroll, benefits, compliance, accounting, taxes, and more through a simple Slack interface.
