Check

Check is a payroll infrastructure platform founded in 2019 that pioneered embedded payroll: API-first infrastructure allowing software companies to build payroll businesses directly into their own products. Vertical SaaS platforms, workforce management systems and accounting software use Check's APIs to offer payroll services without building the underlying stack themselves. The platform spans money movement, tax calculation and filing across federal, state and local jurisdictions, real-time wage payments, workers' compensation, and administration of 401(k) and health benefits.

The company reports that its infrastructure powers more than 80 partner companies serving over 25,000 businesses, with $4.1 billion in wages processed in 2024. Check positions its work against a market in which trillions of dollars of wage payments still run on outdated technology. The company is backed by Stripe and Thrive Capital.

Check operates as a distributed team of engineers and payroll experts, with hubs in New York and San Francisco. Its staff include alumni of Google, Uber and Goldman Sachs, alongside people with decades of payroll experience from ADP, Gusto and Paychex. The founding team previously built Oyster, which was acquired by Google.

Work spans several technical domains: payroll infrastructure and embedded payroll, API-first platform design, money movement, tax computation and filing, real-time payments, and benefits and workers' compensation administration. The company's stated focus is modernizing wage payment infrastructure.