On Tuesday, Paris-based Web3 payments startup Request Finance launched “Salaries” to help Web3 enterprises automate payroll in cryptocurrency.
“Request Finance began with a simple idea: simplify crypto payments for businesses,” Christophe Lassuyt, CEO and Co-founder of Request Finance, said.
“We take the hassle out of compliance and financial operations for companies using crypto.”
Lassuyt, a Y Combinator Alumnus, said the team reached out to Web3 CFOs and found many needed a way to automate crypto salary payments. Most said they used Request’s “recurring invoices” feature as a workaround, a tedious and annoying process, Lassuyt said.
He said many Web3 teams are globally dispersed and remote-first, which presents unique challenges in ensuring everybody gets paid on time with minimal hassle.
The new Salaries feature allows crypto-native teams to automate salary payments no matter where employees are, freeing team members from the burden of sending invoices to HR or finance departments to get paid.
Perfect for global remote teams
“When we spoke to our users, we learned that over 90% of CFOs at Web3 teams were copying wallet addresses from an Excel spreadsheet and paying them one by one in MetaMask,” he said. “This is both incredibly tedious, not to mention error-prone, as wallet addresses and transactions are anonymous by default. You can’t see before you pay that you are sending money to the right wallet.”
To better serve the payroll needs of Web3 teams, Request Finance launched a dedicated feature that works like payroll solutions in traditional finance. It also makes it easier for taxes and accounting, and on the employee side, keeping track of paychecks.
Request Finance’s new crypto payroll feature saves time for both companies and employees, Lassuyt said. The new interface allows CFOs to schedule recurring crypto salary payments. Once approved, firms can pay salaries across hundreds of different wallet addresses in just a few clicks.
“As wallet addresses are linked to employees’ real-world identity— there is no risk of paying to the wrong wallet address,” he said. “Better still, employees are instantly notified in the app and via email about the real-time payment status of their salaries.”
No more Excel
Both employees and employers can quickly review their transaction histories in the app. They know precisely how much was paid, to whom, when, and the exact market price at the time of payment,” Lassuyt said. “Before, employees also had to comb through their wallet transactions to see if they got paid on time or ask their finance departments to send them the transaction confirmations.”
Request Finance believes using stablecoins is often cheaper, faster, and more accessible than bank transfers, and paying global teams in crypto puts the ‘money where the mouth is.’ The new platform enables users to pay team members in over 150 different cryptocurrencies or stablecoins, with 14 blockchain payment networks to choose from.
Of course, salaries are just one payroll component, including bonuses, sales commissions, or even withheld taxes, and the firm said it aims to add those features next. There’s also a complex web of geography-specific regulations that payroll enterprises must navigate, Lassuyt said
Pain Points in Web3
Since launching in January 2021, Request Finance has focused on addressing common pain points like regulatory compliance and financial reporting for Web3. Its transformative efforts have garnered attention from verticals across the Web3 ecosystem, including DeFi companies like Aave, metaverse and NFT-related projects like The Sandbox, and DAOs like Maker.
“We’ve been looking for a robust solution to pay hundreds of monthly invoices, salaries, and expenses in crypto,” Sebastien Borget, Co-founder and COO of The Sandbox, said. “Request Finance has been the go-to solution that delivered above our expectations and scales as The Sandbox keeps expanding the open metaverse.”
Request Finance is on a quest to build an automation system of enterprise payments for Web3. In June, Request raised a $5.5 million seed round from industry participants like Borget and Michael Kong, CEO of Fantom.
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