If you’ve ever tried to run payroll across borders, you know the pain: ancient infrastructure, patchwork tools, costly errors, and a tech stack that’s allergic to scale. Niural, a startup boldly calling itself the first “AI-native global PEO,” is betting big on fixing that—with help from a fresh $31 million in Series A funding.
The round, led by Marathon Management Partners, also includes existing backers M13, Inspired Capital, and Newform Capital. Marathon’s Gokul Rajaram—whose board résumé spans Coinbase, The Trade Desk, and Pinterest—is joining Niural’s board, a strong signal of strategic intent.
A PEO Built for AI—and the CFO
While plenty of platforms claim to automate HR and payroll, Niural is gunning for a bigger win: turning one of the most outdated enterprise processes into a fintech brain trust for global CFOs. That means designing not just automation, but actual intelligence into the infrastructure.
What makes Niural different? It didn’t bolt AI onto legacy plumbing. Instead, the company built an entirely new system from the ground up—complete with proprietary tax engines, embedded payments, and EMMA, its “executional AI coworker.” The platform’s core pitch: eliminate silos, automate compliance, and drastically reduce costs and errors.
That’s not just a slogan. Niural claims customers save 60+ hours per month, cut foreign exchange and HR costs by up to 50%, and slash payroll errors by 90%.
In a market where most HR tech tools are duct-taped together and CFOs juggle six platforms to make one payroll run, that kind of simplicity—and accuracy—sells itself.
Payroll as Fintech? Why Not.
“Payroll is one of the most complex fintech problems out there,” said Rajaram. “Niural isn’t just doing payroll—they’re building a financial infrastructure layer that can expand into every CFO function.”
And that seems to be happening. While companies might enter through Niural’s PEO offering, many eventually consolidate 3–6 back-office tools onto the platform. That sticky expansion path hints at Niural’s larger ambition: to become the go-to system of record—and action—for global finance operations.
Timing Is Everything
The backdrop to Niural’s rise couldn’t be more favorable. Remote work has gone global, and so have the headaches around hiring, tax compliance, FX, and localized benefits. Meanwhile, generative AI is disrupting everything from customer support to code generation. Why not back-office finance?
“Niural sits at the intersection of powerful shifts—in AI, global teams, and integrated ops,” said CEO and co-founder Nami Baral, whose previous startup, Harvest, was also an early mover in AI automation. “With agentic AI, we’re not just recording data—we’re interpreting it, acting on it, and learning from it.”
Co-founder and president Nabin Banskota, a former CFO, adds that the platform delivers exactly what he long wished for in his own finance roles: centralized control with global reach and automated compliance.
For CFOs, this might be the holy grail. Instead of wrestling with tax law in 12 countries and reconciling Slack messages with spreadsheet chaos, Niural promises a unified, intelligent layer across everything from payroll to payments to benefits.
Can Niural Scale with the Giants?
Global HR and payroll is a notoriously complex and crowded space. Incumbents like ADP and TriNet offer enterprise-grade solutions, while newer players like Deel, Remote, and Oyster are battling it out for control of the remote workforce segment.
But Niural’s differentiator is clear: it’s not just selling a service, it’s selling an infrastructure—and it’s doing it with AI at the core. That positions it less like another HR SaaS vendor, and more like the Plaid or Stripe of global employment operations.
Its early growth numbers are promising: 700% ARR growth last year and logos like Polygon Labs, Tensor, and Karate.com on the roster. Clients report dropping multiple vendors in favor of Niural’s unified platform—a customer behavior that often signals deep product-market fit.
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