Gusto, Inc. is a company that develops payroll, benefits, and human resource management software for businesses based in the United States.

History

ZenPayroll was part of

Y Combinator Y Combinator, LLC (YC) is an American technology startup accelerator and venture capital firm launched in March 2005 which has been used to launch more than 5,000 companies. The accelerator program started in Boston and Mountain View, Californi ...

's Winter 2012 batch. The company raised $6.1 million from investors including Box CEO and co-founder

Aaron Levie Aaron Winsor Levie (born December 27, 1984) (pronounced ) is an American entrepreneur. He is the co-founder and CEO of the enterprise cloud company Box. Early life and education Aaron Levie was born on December 27, 1984, in Boulder, Colorado, th ...

Yammer Viva Engage (formerly Yammer) is an enterprise social networking service that is part of the Microsoft 365 family of products. It is used mainly for private enterprise social software, communication within organizations but is also used for net ...

CEO and co-founder

David O. Sacks David Oliver Sacks (born May 25, 1972) is a South African-American entrepreneur, author, and investor in internet technology firms. He is a general partner of Craft Ventures, a venture capital fund he co-founded in late 2017. Additionally, he is ...

, and others. The service launched officially on December 11, 2012 in

California California () is a U.S. state, state in the Western United States that lies on the West Coast of the United States, Pacific Coast. It borders Oregon to the north, Nevada and Arizona to the east, and shares Mexico–United States border, an ...

by Joshua Reeves, Tomer London and Edward Kim. On June 12, 2013, the company announced support for paying contract workers and ensuring tax compliance through

Form 1099 Form 1099 is one of several IRS tax forms (see the variants section) used in the United States to prepare and file an ''information return'' to report various types of income other than wages, salaries, and tips (for which Form W-2 is used instead ...

and other paperwork. The company also announced plans to launch services in

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Texas Texas ( , ; or ) is the most populous U.S. state, state in the South Central United States, South Central region of the United States. It borders Louisiana to the east, Arkansas to the northeast, Oklahoma to the north, New Mexico to the we ...

, and

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state. In August 2013, the company announced that it had exceeded $100 million in payments processed annually, and was launching in

, and

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state. In September 2014, the company announced its

application programming interface An application programming interface (API) is a connection between computers or between computer programs. It is a type of software Interface (computing), interface, offering a service to other pieces of software. A document or standard that des ...

(API) and partnerships with over a dozen small and medium business (SMB) back-office service companies. In December 2014, the company announced support for letting companies match employees' charitable donations. At the time, it was valued at over $100 million. In 2014,''

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'' listed the company among the best back-office software for small businesses. At the time, the ''

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'' compared the company to larger payroll processors such as ADP, citing both advantages and disadvantages. In July 2015, the company announced that it had expanded its business and opened a new office in

Denver Denver ( ) is a List of municipalities in Colorado#Consolidated city and county, consolidated city and county, the List of capitals in the United States, capital and List of municipalities in Colorado, most populous city of the U.S. state of ...

, Colorado. In September 2015, it was announced that ZenPayroll had changed its name to Gusto, and was broadening its focus to integrate health benefits and workers' compensation into its payroll software. In December 2015, Gusto raised $50 million in funding and reached a $1 billion valuation. ''

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'' reported that Gusto was raising prices on all customers in October 2016. In July 2019, Gusto raised $200 million at a $3.8 billion valuation. That year, the company announced the opening of its third office, in

New York City New York, often called New York City (NYC), is the most populous city in the United States, located at the southern tip of New York State on one of the world's largest natural harbors. The city comprises five boroughs, each coextensive w ...

. In 2023, the company was valued at $9.6 billion and had an annual revenue of $500 million. It had raised over $746 million in funding from investors as of 2024. It currently develops payroll processing software, in addition to software for employee onboarding (work authorization forms, direct deposit forms, employee information aggregation). Separately, Gusto also provides employee

health insurance Health insurance or medical insurance (also known as medical aid in South Africa) is a type of insurance that covers the whole or a part of the risk of a person incurring medical expenses. As with other types of insurance, risk is shared among ma ...

dental insurance Dental insurance is a form of health insurance designed to pay a portion of the costs associated with dental care. American dental insurance The American Dental Association has lobbied against the US government providing dental insurance covera ...

, and vision insurance enrollment and administration. The company provides other employee-benefit and related products through third parties, including

401K In the United States, a 401(k) plan is an employer-sponsored, defined contribution, defined-contribution, personal pension (savings) account, as defined in subsection 401(k) of the U.S. Internal Revenue Code. Periodic employee contributions come d ...

and

workers' compensation Workers' compensation or workers' comp is a form of insurance providing wage replacement and medical benefits to employees injured in the course of employment in exchange for mandatory relinquishment of the employee's right to sue his or her emp ...

insurance.

References

External links

* {{official website, https://gusto.com/ Technology companies of the United States Technology companies based in the San Francisco Bay Area Y Combinator companies Payroll Software companies of the United States