Gusto
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Investors
Founders
About
Gusto (formerly ZenPayroll) is an HR, payroll, and benefits platform for small businesses, founded in 2012 by Josh Reeves, Tomer London, and Edward Kim 1. The company graduated from Y Combinator’s Winter 2012 batch and rebranded from ZenPayroll to Gusto in September 2015 as it expanded beyond payroll into health benefits and workers’ compensation 2. Gusto serves over 300,000 small businesses, generated over $500 million in revenue in fiscal 2023, and has been cash flow positive since early 2023 3. In June 2025, the company completed a $200M+ tender offer at a $9.3 billion valuation led by Ontario Teachers’ Pension Plan 4.
Funding History
| Date | Round | Amount | Lead | Co-investors |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Dec 2012 | Seed | $6.1M | General Catalyst | Google Ventures, Y Combinator, Sherpalo Ventures, DCVC, Aaron Levie, David Sacks, Drew Houston, Jawed Karim, Jeremy Stoppelman, Tien Tzuo, Larry Augustin 15 |
| Feb 2014 | Series A | $20M | General Catalyst, Kleiner Perkins (co-lead) | — 6 |
| Apr 2015 | Series B | $60M | Google Capital (CapitalG) | Google Ventures, Emergence Capital, Ribbit Capital, General Catalyst, Kleiner Perkins, Glynn Capital, Felicis Ventures 78 |
| Dec 2015 | Series B-2 | $50M | — | Google Capital, General Catalyst, Obvious Ventures, Slow Ventures, WME Ventures 25 |
| Jul 2018 | Series C | $140M | T. Rowe Price, MSD Capital, Dragoneer, YC Continuity (co-lead) | General Catalyst, CapitalG, Kleiner Perkins, 137 Ventures, Emergence Capital 9 |
| Jul 2019 | Series D | $200M | Fidelity, Generation Investment Management (co-lead) | T. Rowe Price, Dragoneer, General Catalyst 1011 |
| Aug 2021 | Series E | $175M | T. Rowe Price | Fidelity, Sands Capital, Durable Capital Partners, Generation Investment Management, Emerson Collective, Glynn Capital, Friends & Family Capital, Cross Creek, 137 Ventures, General Catalyst, Emergence Capital, Dragoneer, Franklin Templeton, Acrew Diversify Capital Fund 12 |
| May 2022 | Series E Extension | ~$55M | T. Rowe Price | — 13 |
| Jun 2025 | Tender Offer | $200M+ | Ontario Teachers’ Pension Plan | New and existing investors 4 |
Total equity raised: approximately $746 million 3. Valued at $9.5 billion at Series E (August 2021) 12; tender offer in June 2025 priced at $9.3 billion 4.
What Investors Say
“ZenPayroll’s growth is a rocket ship and it’s extremely rare to find a company as mission-driven as they are.” — Hemant Taneja, Partner, General Catalyst (February 2014) 6
“ZenPayroll is transforming compensation from the unloved, bureaucratic process it is today, to an opportunity to improve the employer and employee relationship.” — Randy Komisar, General Partner, Kleiner Perkins (February 2014) 6
“This is the fastest growing company we’ve seen in a few years. There’s also a significant opportunity in providing simple services for larger businesses.” — Laela Sturdy, Partner, Google Capital (April 2015) 7
“The company has a strong and focused management team, and it has the potential to become much larger as it expands.” — Henry Ellenbogen, T. Rowe Price New Horizons Fund Portfolio Manager (July 2018) 9
“Gusto is supporting entrepreneurs and family-run companies that have been left behind by others.” — Ken Chenault, Chairman and Managing Director, General Catalyst (July 2018) 9
“Generation’s investment in Gusto is rooted in our deep research into the future of compensation. We believe Gusto’s people platform has the potential to balance the disparity in benefits access, and sets a new industry model for what total compensation can look like for employees at companies of all sizes.” — Shalini Rao, Director, Growth Equity, Generation Investment Management (July 2019) 11
“Gusto has made health coverage available to many who would otherwise not have access to it.” — Shalini Rao, Generation Investment Management (July 2019) 10
What Founders Say
“Our mission is not only to modernize payroll, but also to make sure people feel rewarded for their contributions.” — Josh Reeves, CEO & Co-Founder (February 2014) 6
“People would not have trusted putting all their personal information on the web ten years ago. With email, online banking, and other paperless technologies, consumers are much more comfortable putting sensitive data in the cloud.” — Josh Reeves, CEO & Co-Founder (April 2015) 7
“Currently, only 50 percent of small businesses in America make it past year five. This is unacceptable, and we’re here to change that.” — Josh Reeves, CEO & Co-Founder (July 2019) 11
“Being a public company is not a matter of if, but when. We’re weighing the pros and cons and I’m confident the pros will outweigh the cons.” — Josh Reeves, CEO & Co-Founder (July 2019) 10
“It ultimately only works if we’re a leader in the market, if we deliver and actually have great returns for our investors, if we can attract talent… if we can grow revenue because we’re serving more customers. Otherwise, it’s just an overly principled approach that didn’t deliver results.” — Josh Reeves, CEO & Co-Founder (May 2024) 3
“Given the momentum, we’ve had investors interested in owning Gusto stock for a long time.” — Josh Reeves, CEO & Co-Founder (June 2025) 4
Sources
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Contrary Research, “Gusto Business Breakdown & Founding Story,” accessed March 2026. https://research.contrary.com/company/gusto↩↩
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TechCrunch, “Gusto Raises $50M At A $1B Valuation To Take On Zenefits,” December 21, 2015, accessed March 2026. https://techcrunch.com/2015/12/21/gusto-is-looking-for-another-50m-to-take-on-zenefits/↩↩
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Fortune, “Gusto is cash flow positive—and it got there by sticking to mom-approved values,” May 10, 2024, accessed March 2026. https://fortune.com/2024/05/10/gusto-cash-flow-positive-cofounders-mom-approved-values/↩↩↩
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Fortune, “Exclusive: Gusto launches $200 million–plus tender offer,” June 9, 2025, accessed March 2026. https://fortune.com/2025/06/09/gusto-200-million-plus-tender-offer/↩↩↩↩
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Golden, “Gusto (Company),” accessed March 2026. https://golden.com/wiki/Gusto_(Company)-ERZPYR ↩↩
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GlobeNewsWire, “ZenPayroll Raises $20 Million in Series A Funding From General Catalyst Partners and Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers,” February 19, 2014, accessed March 2026. https://www.globenewswire.com/news-release/2014/02/19/971246/0/en/ZenPayroll-Raises-20-Million-in-Series-A-Funding-From-General-Catalyst-Partners-and-Kleiner-Perkins-Caufield-Byers.html↩↩↩↩
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Fortune, “ZenPayroll raises $60 million from Google Capital, Ventures, others,” April 6, 2015, accessed March 2026. https://fortune.com/2015/04/06/zenpayroll-google-capital/↩↩↩
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TechCrunch, “Google Capital Leads A $60 Million Series B Round To Help ZenPayroll Serve Larger Businesses,” April 6, 2015, accessed March 2026. https://techcrunch.com/2015/04/06/google-capital-leads-a-60-million-series-b-round-to-help-zenpayroll-serve-larger-businesses/↩
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CPA Practice Advisor, “Gusto Raises $140 Million in Series C Funding for Payroll and HR Platform,” July 31, 2018, accessed March 2026. https://www.cpapracticeadvisor.com/2018/07/31/gusto-raises-140-million-in-series-c-funding-for-payroll-and-hr-platform/30842/↩↩↩
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Crunchbase News, “Gusto Raises $200M Series D At $3.8B Valuation To Power HR Within Small Businesses,” July 24, 2019, accessed March 2026. https://news.crunchbase.com/startups/gusto-raises-200m-series-d-at-3-8b-valuation/↩↩↩
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Generation Investment Management, “Serving the underserved — Gusto raises $200 million to significantly improve the status quo for small businesses in America,” July 2019, accessed March 2026. https://www.generationim.com/our-thinking/news/serving-the-underserved-gusto-raises-200-million-to-significantly-improve-the-status-quo-for-small-businesses-in-america/↩↩↩
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Global Venturing, “Gusto goes with $175m series E round,” August 2021, accessed March 2026. https://globalventuring.com/corporate/gusto-goes-with-175m-series-e-round/↩↩
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TechCrunch, “Gusto raises an extension round, following Faire as unicorns react to a changing market,” May 12, 2022, accessed March 2026. https://techcrunch.com/2022/05/12/gusto-raises-an-extension-round-following-faire-as-unicorns-react-to-a-changing-market/↩