Simon Bourgeois is no stranger to payroll.
For over three years, he led Toronto-based Humi, which offers payroll, human resources (HR), and benefits software solutions to Canadian businesses. It was during his time as CEO of Humi that he tracked the industry’s shift toward embedded payroll.
Bourgeois left Humi in 2022, and since then has been working with a founding team of other ex-Humi leaders to scale his latest venture: Nmbr. The startup, which is backed by Panache Ventures, Golden Ventures, Motivate Venture Capital, and Luge Capital, is developing infrastructure to simplify building payroll products.
“There was a recognition that infrastructure like this was the missing piece in our ecosystem.”
“We felt passionate about doing something that could accelerate the industry in a way that wasn’t really possible in Canada at the time, and really until our launch, hasn’t been possible,” Bourgeois, now Nmbr’s co-founder and CEO, told BetaKit in an interview.
Nmbr is currently focused on embedded payroll, which refers to infrastructure that integrates payroll functionality directly into existing software platforms. It represents a shift away from traditional setups, where payroll is typically handled by standalone software or external providers. This old model often leads to inefficiencies and disconnects between departments like HR and accounting.
Bourgeois’s interest in embedded payroll began during his time at Humi, where he observed the success of Check—a US-based company that he said pioneered this category of FinTech.
“I saw them launch that business and became really excited about its potential to help us bring our business, originally at Humi, into the US,” Bourgeois said. “There was a recognition that infrastructure like this was the missing piece in our ecosystem that would enable platforms to more quickly evolve and deliver great products for their customers.”
Unlike Humi, which targets employers directly, Nmbr serves software companies that want to embed payroll functionality into their software offerings.
Nmbr’s main product is an application programming interface (API) that allows software providers to embed payroll and tasks like tax calculation, regulatory compliance, and funding flows into their offerings. The startup also offers customizable and embeddable components within partners’ platforms to simplify front-end development. The movement of money with Nmbr is made possible through a banking partnership with the Royal Bank of Canada’s innovation arm RBCx.
The startup’s founding team includes CEO Bourgeois, as well as CRO Drew Millington, and CTO Kevin Langlois. Millington also co-founded and served as CRO at Humi, while Langlois served as Humi’s senior vice president of engineering.
Bourgeois estimated there were 12 payroll software providers in Canada last year, and Nmbr is working with six partners that plan to launch payroll products in the coming months. The startup aims to help launch a total of 12 new payroll products over the next 15 months, which would put it on track to power roughly half of all payroll products in Canada by the end of 2025.
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According to Nmbr, its customers include industry players who are looking to add payroll alongside accounts payable automation, employee scheduling, construction management, e-commerce, and employee benefits management.
Absent from that group is Bourgeois’s last company. “Humi is one of the fortunate companies to have great infrastructure themselves,” he said. “Right now, the companies that we’re working with are companies that are looking to launch new payroll offerings.”
Still, Bourgeois believes embedded payroll has value for companies already offering payroll, citing Canadian tech company Wave announcing plans in April to begin using Check’s infrastructure in the US market.
“It’s a great example of how embedded payroll companies and the infrastructure we provide not only serves to help software providers launch new payroll products, but how we can help existing payroll providers improve their offerings as well,” he added.
To date, the startup has raised $7.6 million CAD in seed funding from institutional investors including Panache Ventures, Golden Ventures, Motivate Venture Capital, and Luge Capital. Of the $7.6 million, $2.5 million CAD closed in July 2023, while the remaining $5.1 million CAD closed in June 2024, according to Bourgeois.
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“We’ve been able to invest deeply in creating something that enables a very fast development and is extremely scalable and reliable,” he said, calling Nmbr’s current offering “the most modern payroll infrastructure that we’re aware of, not just in Canada, but potentially the world.”
While Bourgeois said Nmbr is currently focused on payroll in Canada, its seed funding is also helping the company explore market opportunities elsewhere. However, Bourgeois said it is too early to announce which countries they are exploring, as the current focus is on finding success in Canada.
He said in many countries, people are still paid on antiquated systems because the infrastructure that powers payroll products is complex. “It makes it very hard for innovation to occur that helps employers and employees get paid in a way that’s better for all of them,” he added.
“This infrastructure layer that we’re building, whether it’s in Canada or it’s in a country on the other side of the world, allows for innovation in this space that gives business owners better access to products that can get their employees paid in a digital way.”
Feature image courtesy of Humi.