For years, payroll and HR have weighed down SMEs, tangled in complexity, bureaucracy, and endless regulation. PayFit is dismantling that friction, automating payroll and compliance while giving teams and employees real control over their work life.
PayFit is a leading European tech company offering an automated, real-time payroll & HR solution that frees small & medium businesses and their teams from complexity, so they can act with confidence.
It employs more than 700 people across the UK, France, and Spain, and currently supports over 20,000 entrepreneurs and SMEs in managing their payroll and HR functions. That’s 250,000 employees being paid and managed through PayFit.
PayFit’s CEO and co-founder Firmin Zocchetto, discusses building a payroll platform that puts people at the centre of work.
Tell us more about your company and its offering
In 2015, I saw a gap in the market. Payroll across Europe was still largely manual, complex, paper-based or managed on Excel. I started to question if things could be done differently. So at 22, I quit my studies and launched PayFit with my co-founders Ghislain de Fontenay and Florian Fournier. None of us were payroll experts, but we were convinced we could build something unique for the European market, and create something with real, lasting impact.
The UK is a perfect example of why this matters. Behind every payslip there’s a web of HMRC obligations, auto-enrolment rules, and real-time reporting requirements. Most SMEs are still navigating that complexity with tools never designed for them.
PayFit exists to change that. An automated, real-time payroll & HR solution that reduces errors and frees up time, giving SMEs the confidence to focus on what matters most: their people.
What problem was your company set up to solve?
When we started the company, the goal was to solve a simple but widespread problem: payroll was inaccessible for the people who actually needed to run it. At the time, your options were either outsource to an accountant or use software built for payroll specialists. There was nothing designed for HR teams or finance managers – the very people expected to handle something critical to their business, yet left without the tools or the confidence to do it properly.
Then there was the issue of complexity. We started in France, where payroll is notoriously complex, payslips are dense and processes require a high level of technical knowledge. But as we expanded, we quickly realised this wasn’t just a French problem. Every market has its own rules, reporting requirements and constant regulatory changes. In the UK, the payslip may look simpler, but the compliance burden – from IR35 reforms, National Living Wage uplifts landing every April, and the shift toward Making Tax Digital – mean the compliance landscape is constantly moving.
I wanted to challenge all of that. To give HR and Finance teams the confidence to handle payroll themselves, without constantly worrying about getting it wrong. We automated everything – calculations, pensions, annual updates, compliance – turning something that was once complicated, opaque and stressful into something simple, transparent and reliable.
Since launch, how has your company evolved?
Back in 2016, the level of automation we deliver today simply wasn’t possible. Then came the rise of SaaS, better integrations with wider tech ecosystems, and government digitalisation, all of which were real accelerators for us. Processes that once relied on paperwork can now be handled seamlessly via APIs, and we’re able to integrate directly with banks, health insurance providers and employee benefits platforms like Kota.
More recently, AI has been the biggest driver of change in how we’ve evolved our offering. We launched PayFit Copilot in 2024, initially to support HR teams with complex payroll and people queries. Since then, it’s handled more than 500,000 conversations and helped teams work more efficiently while reducing repetitive workload.
And this year, we upgraded PayFit Copilot into a truly contextual HR AI agent and opened it up to employees for the first time. Now, it adapts to the precise situation of each user, so the answers it gives back are not only personalised but they can be trusted too. That means employees can get clear, reliable answers about their pay, leave or contracts instantly, without needing to rely on generic AI tools or external searches. Because for me, AI only creates value when it understands the real context of the people using it.
What has been the biggest challenge or most ‘tricky moment’ to overcome?
One of the biggest challenges in the UK has been helping people see payroll differently. A lot of businesses don’t feel they have an urgent pain point, because payroll is already running. It’s often time-consuming or more stressful than it should be, but they’ve learned to live with it. The real challenge is helping people realise that ‘it works’ is not the same as ‘it works well’ and that payroll can actually be seamless. That is why the first conversation matters so much. Once people see there is a better way, the shift happens very quickly.
I remember a client telling me that since switching to PayFit, she had fewer grey hairs. That stuck with me. Because that’s exactly what we’re trying to do – not just make payroll easier, but genuinely take the weight off people’s shoulders. After that, there’s no going back!
What are your biggest achievements or ‘proudest moment’ so far?
Around 60 ex-PayFiters have gone on to create their own businesses. I’m extremely proud of this because it reflects the culture we’ve built – one that encourages ownership, initiative, and entrepreneurial thinking at every level.
I really do put a lot of PayFit’s success down to this mindset. We’ve always invited our teams to challenge the status quo and do things differently. I think that spirit of experimentation and responsibility is part of PayFit’s DNA, and seeing it materialise not just inside but also outside the company is very rewarding.
How would you describe the culture of your company?
We’re deliberate about creating a culture that’s inclusive, ambitious and forward-thinking, driven by people who are genuinely passionate about what we’re building. It starts with a simple belief: when our people thrive, PayFit thrives.
We want everyone to bring a genuine entrepreneurial mindset to their work – to take ownership, act decisively and understand how their contribution directly shapes what we build. We manage by trust and give real autonomy, creating opportunities for people to grow in ways that matter to them.
But none of that works without a strong team around you. We collaborate, challenge each other and hold ourselves to a high standard. We give people the space to question, experiment and try new things. Because ultimately, the way we work together is what enables us to build something that genuinely makes a difference for the businesses that depend on us.
What’s in store for the future?
Our direction is set: keep building the tools that remove complexity from payroll and HR, so that Finance and HR teams can act with confidence and focus on what actually matters – their people and business growth.
We’re investing heavily in AI, but with intention. PayFit Copilot already helps HR teams and employees navigate payroll with confidence – and the next step is bigger: moving from answering questions to actually doing the work, so payroll is always correct and always on time. But the ambition goes further than payroll. We want to bridge the gap between payroll and HR – using AI and smart analytics to give finance leaders, HR teams and managers the data and insight they need to make better decisions about their people. That’s what we’re building towards.
Finally, we’re focused on strengthening what we’ve built. That means deepening our payroll market coverage, expanding into industries with particularly complex payroll needs. The UK is full of fast-growing sectors where compliance demands are high and the right payroll infrastructure can be genuinely transformative – and that’s exactly where we’re focused.
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