Pave Raises $100M Series C led by Index Ventures and Acquires Option Impact

Now valued at $1.6B, new funds solidify Pave's position as market leader and fastest growing global CompTech provider

SAN FRANCISCO, June 28, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- Pave, the real time compensation platform that helps companies plan, communicate and benchmark against the market, announced today that it has raised $100 million in Series C funding and acquired Advanced-HR from Morgan Stanley. Advanced-HR has a product suite that includes Option Impact, Option Driver and the VCECS (Venture Capital Executive Compensation Survey).

The round was led by Index Ventures with Partner Mark Goldberg taking a Board seat. Several new and existing investors also participated, including Andreessen Horowitz, YC Continuity Fund, LocalGlobe, Craft Ventures, Original Capital, Backend Capital and Contrary Capital as well as notable individuals including former LinkedIn CEO Jeff Weiner and former Facebook VP of HR Tudor Havriliuc.

Pave will leverage the capital infusion and acquisition momentum to accelerate its path towards becoming the world's premiere global compensation platform. Since Pave's inception in 2019, the team has grown to 150 employees and now supports over 2,500 customers. The new funds and acquisition of Option Impact will also accelerate Pave's European market expansion.

"The Pave journey has just barely started. There are four billion participants in the global workforce, and compensation is a guessing game for every single one of them," said Pave Founder and CEO Matt Schulman. "We will not stop until every single person in the world knows their value and earns what they deserve."

"Compensation is a visceral problem for every company. For generations, we have been stuck with offline, finger-in-the-air practices when figuring out how much to pay people. These problems are both universal and wildly expensive. The ubiquitous compensation pain felt worldwide is what made me particularly excited when I first met Matt and the Pave team. We are thrilled to fuel their growth to help Pave empower all global businesses and employees," said Mark Goldberg, Partner at Index Ventures.

The acquisition of Option Impact strengthens Pave's market position. The consolidation of customer bases from both firms into the Pave ecosystem solidifies Pave as the largest compensation benchmarking database for private technology companies in the world.

Through this acquisition, Pave will also partner with Morgan Stanley at Work, an industry leader of equity management and workplace financial solutions including Shareworks and E*TRADE Equity Edge. Morgan Stanley at Work will bring Pave's compensation benchmarking and planning products to their clients in addition to offering a seamless integration with the Shareworks platform.

"We could not be more excited to roll out our partnership with Pave," said Kevin Swan, Co-head of Morgan Stanley at Work Global Private Markets. "Morgan Stanley has long played a major role in the private markets and startup ecosystem, and is a sought-after partner of many of the most interesting technology companies. Through our work with innovative companies like Pave, we help ensure that game changing technologies are brought to bear to support our clients, advisors, and the growth of our business overall."

The world has experienced unprecedented levels of macroeconomic flux since Pave's inception. COVID initiated a flurry of highly dynamic shifts including the March 2020 Black Swan outlook, the accelerated revolution of remote work, an unprecedented tech bull market, rampant inflation, new pay transparency legislation and now, a dire downturn as we enter a possible recession. Compared to the hot job market and bull economy 2022 began with, the realities of today's economic dip are in stark contrast.

Every single one of these events drives compensation uncertainty. Public companies are now reevaluating how to compensate and retain employees after their stock has halved – or worse. Private companies are considering cash preservation strategies as private market funding has vaporized. Employees are asking themselves if they are still willing to jump between jobs with the same frequency we observed during The Great Resignation.

During times of uncertainty, Pave's real-time pulse of the market is more relevant than ever.  It is now a competitive disadvantage for employers to not be on top of cash and equity pay trends in real-time.

Companies can sign up for Pave's real-time compensation dataset here. It's free.

Pave is a real-time compensation platform that helps companies effectively plan, communicate, and benchmark compensation. The Pave suite integrates with dozens of ATS, HRIS, and equity management tools, including Greenhouse, TriNet, BambooHR, Namely, Lever, ADP, Workday, Jobvite, Shareworks, Equity Edge Online, Carta, Rippling, Justworks, Paylocity, Sapling, Personio, Capdesk, Ledgy, and UltiPro. Founded in late 2019 by CEO Matt Schulman, Pave is headquartered in San Francisco. Learn more about Pave's vision from our CEO and founder, and visit us at pave.com.

Based in San Francisco, Advanced-HR is the trusted source for compensation data in the venture capital and private company ecosystem. Through its products, OptionDriver and OptionImpact, the company has unparalleled expertise with compensation data and services. Over 3,900 companies and 290 top venture capital firms use Advanced-HR for compensation and equity benchmarking and planning.

Index Ventures is a venture firm investing in the next generation of entrepreneurs from seed to IPO. We partner with founders with bold dreams that challenge the status quo to build enduring companies. With offices in London, San Francisco & New York, we invest in entrepreneurs all over the world. Generational Index-backed companies include Adyen, Datadog, Discord, Figma, Robinhood, and Roblox.

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