Grace Ashiru
The global freelance market, valued at $1.3 trillion and supported by over 200 million knowledge workers, has created a demand for solutions that automate payroll and streamline employment and tax regulations worldwide.
However, many existing products fall short in addressing the legal landscape of emerging markets, such as variations in employment laws. This gap forces global hiring platforms, which often depend on third-party payroll providers, to navigate the complexities of local employment laws independently, resulting in a subpar experience for workers.
Additionally, remote workers in these markets face significant challenges, including waiting up to a week to receive their wages and losing 5-7% in remittance fees. This is where Cadana steps in: launched in 2021, its APIs and white-label products enable global workforces to integrate payments and payroll management into their existing systems.
Cadana facilitates payroll operations for prominent talent marketplaces, staffing firms, and HR providers, allowing them to compensate workers in over 32 emerging markets, including Brazil, Ghana, Nigeria, Pakistan, and the UAE. This service simplifies the process for workers in these regions to access global job opportunities. According to TechCrunch, the company has secured a total of $7.4 million in funding since its inception in January 2021. This funding includes $325,000 in pre-seed capital raised in the same year and a $7.1 million seed round that closed this year. The most recent round was led by Costanoa Ventures, with participation from Better Tomorrow Ventures and 500 Global.
Our customers in emerging markets truly value what we have built. When we began, workers often had to wait about seven days to receive their payments and also incurred remittance fees, which is a significant burden considering that many support an average of five family members,” co-founder and CEO Albert Owusu-Asare shared in an interview with TechCrunch. “We concentrated on developing a strong local infrastructure to tackle these issues. Over the past three years, we have integrated local payments, compliance, and benefits systems to better serve our customers and address their needs.”
Cadana’s main customer base is in the U.S. and the U.K., where it supports remote work businesses that employ thousands, or even tens of thousands, of workers. Many of these businesses had previously faced challenges with ineffective vendors or their own internal solutions. Owusu-Asare explained that Cadana offers a range of solutions specifically designed to address the various problems these businesses encounter.
At the base level, Cadana offers a white-label solution that allows businesses to add their logo and go live quickly. The mid-tier option is designed for those who wish to develop custom components, including UI elements, with Cadana’s assistance. The top tier, targeting clients who require tailored solutions but lack the essential infrastructure, includes APIs that handle payments, compliance, local labor law comprehension, and fraud control, enabling clients to develop bespoke tools.
Owusu-Asare and Ameer Shujjah, Cadana’s other co-founder and its CTO, are both immigrants to the U.S. who met in college as computer science and physics majors. After gaining years of experience working at Amazon, Esusu, and Goldman Sachs, they founded Cadana. Initially, the company began as an earned wage access (EWA) platform targeting specific African markets. However, shortly after launching, the focus on salary-on-demand shifted to become a feature within a broader strategy of offering global payroll software and services to businesses in emerging markets. This pivot was driven by the recognition of a larger opportunity to address a variety of payroll challenges.
“I’m from Ghana, and Ameer is from Pakistan. We have a deep understanding of the needs and pain points of workers in these regions, and our goal is to offer them the best possible pay experience,” stated Owusu-Asare. Cadana also offers features such as real-time payments with fees under $3, along with options for workers to invest in USD-denominated assets like stocks.
Cadana faces competition from several companies, including the UAE-based RemotePass, which also targets emerging markets. Additionally, U.S. payroll giants like Deel and Remote are expanding into these markets to boost their growth, indicating that competition is set to intensify. However, Owusu-Asare emphasizes Cadana’s unique advantage in streamlining and speeding up remittance for talent in emerging markets, specifically in Africa, Asia, and Latin America.
During our interview, he mentioned that Cadana offers more than eight flexible payment options for workers to withdraw funds, such as mobile money, bank accounts, and cards. He also underscored the importance of Cadana’s team of legal experts, who possess deep knowledge of local labor laws across various regions.
Furthermore, Owusu-Asare revealed that he sees global HR platforms like Deel and Rippling as potential customers rather than competitors, due to Cadana’s role as a provider of payroll APIs and white-label solutions.
Amy Cheetham, partner at Costanoa Ventures, commented in a supporting statement: “While the U.S. has seen a surge in tech platforms aiming to streamline payroll and benefits, most fall far short of addressing the unique challenges faced by employees and employers in emerging markets. Albert and Ameer have built exactly that—a purpose-built suite of white-label products and APIs for emerging markets to power the next-generation pay experience for millions of workers.”
Cadana claims to have processed more than $150 million in transactions for its clients to date. It also reports that its customer base has tripled in the past year, though it did not disclose specific clientele. The three-year-old company also shared that its revenue, generated from tiered pricing and fees charged to businesses per contract or employee paid on the platform, increased 11-fold over the same period.
According to its website, the New York-headquartered company has saved workers in emerging markets over $2.5 million in fees so far. As it looks to continue being profitable—a feat Cadana said it achieved last year—the company will use the latest funds to expand its team, accelerate product development, and scale into new markets.
