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CloudPay, a payroll services provider, lands $120M in new funding

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In 1996, two companies, Patersons HR and Payroll Solutions, formed a venture called CloudPay to provide payroll and payments services to enterprise clients. CloudPay grew quietly over the next several decades, adding workflow automation features to maintain pace with upstart rivals.

It’s still growing, CFO Andy Thomson assures TechCrunch.

Thomson claims that CloudPay is handling the payroll processes of 280 firms including Visa, Wayfair, Wells Fargo, Expedia and The London Stock Exchange, processing more than 3 million pay slips a year in over 130 countries.

“CloudPay is sitting at contracted revenue of $125 million,” Thomson said. “Over the last three years, we have more than doubled revenue.”

Now, the company has landed a new $120 million funding round led by Blue Owl Capital to continue accelerating that growth. Bringing its total raised to $228 million, the round values CloudPay “significantly higher” than the company’s last round in October 2022, Thomson said.

“In an environment of constant change, customer expectations are shifting, too,” he said. “They expect more. In the world’s on-demand culture, traditional payroll doesn’t always fit, so we’ve evolved payroll to fit new demands. Compliance and legislation have gotten more complex and varied country to country as well.”

Today, CloudPay offers a range of global payroll, salary payments and pay-on-demand services. Payroll professionals get real-time reports and customizable dashboards, while finance teams get a choice of funding and pay options localized to employees.

The competition for payroll software hasn’t gotten any less stiff. There are startups like Y Combinator-backed Workpay, Symmetrical.ai, Payroll Integrations and Skuad, which was just this week acquired by fintech Payoneer. Indeed, my colleague Mary Ann has written about how it seems that practically every startup these days wants to help people get paid.

With a workforce of 1,350 people and offices across Raleigh, Budapest, Shanghai, Costa Rica, Barcelona and elsewhere, CloudPay plans to put the proceeds from its latest fundraise toward bringing on new integrated partners and investing in automation and AI tech.

“CloudPay’s innovation in technology has been a significant focus for us this year, and with this round of funding, we can accelerate our timeline,” Thomson said. “We expect to make AI announcements later this year.”

Rho Capital Partners, The Olayan Group and Hollyport Capital also contributed to CloudPay’s newest tranche.

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LIVE: Watch SpaceX Launch Historic Polaris Dawn Astronaut Mission Today

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The Polaris Dawn mission is lifting off today. It is targeted for launch with four astronauts by SpaceX’s Falcon 9 rocket at 1:08 pm IST with backup opportunities available at 2:53 pm and 4:39 pm.

According to SpaceX, the weather is currently 40 percent favourable for launch. If the mission is scrubbed today, launch opportunities are available at the same time on September 11.

The Polaris Dawn crew includes mission commander Jared Isaacman, retired US Navy pilot Scott Poteet, and SpaceX engineers Sarah Gillis and Anna Menon.

All four astronauts have been strapped inside the Dragon spacecraft resilience which will take them to the highest Earth orbit since the Apollo missions. The launch is being streamed live on SpaceX’s X profile and on YouTube by popular channels like Everyday Astronaut and NASA Spaceflight Now.

ALSO SEE: Elon Musk Excited For SpaceX’s First Spacewalk Mission On August 26; ‘This Will Be Epic’

The crew will ascend to an altitude of 1,400 km during the mission which will last five days. Isaacman and Gillis will also script history by conducting the world’s first spacewalk in a commercial mission.

The Dragon spacecraft has been outfitted with a ‘Skywalker’ which is designed to help the crew perform a series of suit tests during their spacewalk. Notably, the spacewalk will take place at an altitude of 700 km on the third day of the mission. SpaceX has even designed special suits for the job.

ALSO SEE: SpaceX Unveils Next-Gen Spacesuits Ahead Of World’s First Commercial Spacewalk This Year

They are also carrying a Starlink router to test the satellite-based laser communication system in space for the first time. Another objective is carrying out experiments to monitor changes in human physiology in microgravity and high-radiation environment.

SpaceX says it is the third mission this Dragon spacecraft is supporting. It has previously been used for NASA’s Crew-1 and the world’s first all-civilian mission to space Inspiration4. Isaacman’s first trip to space was with Inspiration4 which raised $200 million for St. Jude’s children’s hospital. He is financing the Polaris Program which includes two more missions after Polaris Dawn.

(Image: X/@JaredIsaacman)





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NASA’s Hubble And Chandra Telescopes Spot Supermassive Black Holes On Collision Course

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NASA’s Hubble Space Telescope and Chandra X-ray Observatory have confirmed an extraordinary discovery – two supermassive black holes locked in a close orbit within a distant galaxy. The galaxy, named MCG-03-34-064, is located about 800 million light years from Earth, and these black holes are the result of a collision between two galaxies.

The Hubble Telescope, using visible-light imaging, revealed three bright spots at the center of this galaxy. Two of these spots are supermassive black holes, detected due to the strong X-ray emissions captured by the Chandra Observatory.

These black holes shine brightly because they are actively consuming surrounding matter, converting it into energy, and releasing intense radiation across space. This makes them known as active galactic nuclei (AGN).

ALSO SEE: Astronomers Discover Supermassive Black Hole Equal To The Mass Of 40 Billion Suns

The distance between the two black holes, according to scientists, is about 300 light-years, which makes them the closest pair of AGNs observed using both visible light and X-rays. Their tight proximity suggests that they are in the early stages of merging, a process that will take millions of years but will eventually lead to a single, even larger black hole.

The third bright spot in the galaxy is a cloud of gas, while a striking blue streak near the black holes could be a jet of energy, likely emitted by one of the black holes as it consumes matter.

This discovery highlights the incredible power of combining Hubble’s sharp visible-light images with Chandra’s X-ray data, providing scientists with a unique view of black holes and galaxy mergers. Over time, the merging of these black holes will reshape the galaxy, offering astronomers valuable insight into the dynamic evolutionary process of the universe.

ALSO SEE: NASA Shares Dazzling Images From Chandra Telescope As It Completes 25 Years In Space

(Image: NASA/ESA)





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SpaceX Shares First Views Of Earth As Polaris Dawn Reaches Highest Orbit In 50 Years

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Astronauts of the Polaris Dawn mission are currently in space and pictures from their vantage point are getting released. SpaceX has shared the first visuals of Earth captured by the camera onboard the Dragon spacecraft Resilience.

The video features the top view of Dragon with ‘Starwalker,’ a new hardware installed in the spacecraft for spacewalking purpose, overlooking our planet. These views, according to SpaceX, were captured when Dragon was in a 190 X 1,216 km (closest and farthest point from Earth) orbit shortly after launch.

Dragon then circled our planet eight times before achieving highest orbit (1400 km apogee) in more than five decades.

The mission lifted off at 2:53 pm IST from NASA’s Kennedy Space Center on September 10 on a Falcon 9 rocket and will last five days. It has a four-person crew including mission commander Jared Isaacman, pilot Scott Poteet and mission specialists Anna Menon and Sarah Gillis.

Anna Menon, Scott Poteet, Jared Isaacman and Sarah Gillis (left to right) inside the Dragon spacecraft. Image: SpaceX

In an update shared today, SpaceX said that Dragon has achieved an apogee (farthest point from Earth) of 1,400.7 km, making it the greatest distance any of its missions have achieved. It is also the farthest humans have been in space since the Apollo era over 50 years ago.

ALSO SEE: SpaceX’s Polaris Dawn Mission Finally Takes Off; Watch The Historic Moment

What did Polaris Dawn astronauts do on their first day?

The Polaris Program gave an update about the itinerary the four astronauts followed on their first day.

Once they were in orbit after liftoff, the crew began a two-day pre-breathe protocol wherein Dragon’s pressure was gradually lowered while increasing oxygen levels inside the cabin. This helped purge nitrogen from the astronauts’ bloodstreams and lower the risk of decompression sickness (DCS). It is an important drill before their spacewalk begins.

About two hours after liftoff, the crew had their first meal in space and carried out the first experiment involving Starlink for about 3.5 hours. They have carried with them 36 science experiments that will be conducted over the course of five days.

On the first day itself, the astronauts were also exposed to high doses of radiation when the Dragon passed through the South Atlantic Anomaly (SAA). In this region, Earth’s magnetic field is weaker and more high-energy particles can enter Earth.

The crew is currently preparing for the historic spacewalk, which would be the first ever in a commercial mission. Isaacman and Gillis will step out of Dragon for the spacewalk on September 12. Interestingly, all four astronauts will get exposed to the vacuum of space during the spacewalk because the Dragon spacecraft does not have an airlock and the entire capsule will be depressurised when it opens.

SpaceX has designed new spacesuits which the astronauts are wearing for the spacewalk. Data gathered about its performance will pave way for new spacesuit technology to support missions to the Moon and Mars.

ALSO SEE: Elon Musk Excited For SpaceX’s First Spacewalk Mission On August 26; ‘This Will Be Epic’

(Image: SpaceX)





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