- Companies
- Pave
Last Pave valuation
$1.6B
Series C · Jun 2022
Last Pave funding round
$100M
Series C · Jun 2022
Cumulative funding Pave raised
$163M
across 4 funding rounds
Key investors in Pave
Andreessen Horowitz
Y Combinator
Bessemer Venture Partners
Y Combinator Continuity Fund
Backend Capital
Index Ventures
About Pave
Pave is a San Francisco-headquartered compensation management platform using AI for real-time pay analytics and workflows. The software serves enterprises including Atlassian, Coinbase, Databricks, Dropbox, Instacart, McDonald’s, OpenAI, Snowflake, and Stripe. Pave enables data benchmarking, equity planning, and performance-linked incentives.
Founded
2019
HQ
Website
Status
Privately held
Customer focus
B2B
Revenue model
Subscription
Valuation
$1.6B (Jun 2022)
Pave Valuation
Pave is currently valued at $1.6B, based on its Series C in June 2022.
The $100M round was led by Index Ventures, with participation from LocalGlobe, Tudor Havriliuc, Andreessen Horowitz, Tribe Capital, Original Capital and 5 other investors.
Pave's valuation has grown 21x from $75M at its Series A in December 2020 to $1.6B in June 2022, across 3 priced rounds.
Pave valuation by funding round
| Date | Stage | Valuation |
|---|---|---|
| Jun 2022 | Series C | $1.6B |
| Aug 2021 | Series B | $400M |
| Dec 2020 | Series A | $75M |
Pave Funding History
Pave has raised a total of $163M across 4 funding rounds.
Pave's first fundraising round was a $1M seed round in March 2020. The most recent completed round was a $100M Series C in June 2022.
Pave funding rounds
| Date | Stage | Investors | Raised | Valuation | Deal Summary |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Jun 2022 | Series C | Index Ventures (lead); LocalGlobe; Tudor Havriliuc; Andreessen Horowitz; Tribe Capital; Original Capital; Y Combinator Continuity Fund; Backend Capital; Contrary; Jeff Weiner; Craft Ventures | $100M | $1.6B | Pave develops a cloud-based compensation management platform that provides real-time benchmarking tools, helping companies make data-driven pay decisions, optimize equity strategies, and maintain transparency in compensation across roles. The platform aggregates compensation data from thousands of companies, enabling users to analyze salary ranges, employee placements within bands, and market trends to ensure competitive and fair pay structures. By June 2022, Pave had grown to 2.7K customers, later expanding to ~6K companies through the acquisition of Option Impact, covering over 27K executive records and 645K employee records, though not all are paying customers as many use the free benchmarking tool. On June 28, 2022, Pave raised $100 million in a Series C funding round led by Index Ventures, with participation from Andreessen Horowitz, Backend Capital, Contrary, Craft Ventures, Jeff Weiner, Original Capital, Tribe Capital, Tudor Havriliuc, Y Combinator Continuity Fund, and others, achieving a post-money valuation of $1.6 billion and unicorn status. The funds supported the Option Impact acquisition and further platform development to expand into the global labor market. Total funding across rounds reached approximately $163 million by that point. Pave positions itself at the intersection of HR tech and fintech, targeting a massive addressable market in compensation data for the 4 billion-person labor economy. CEO Matt Schulman highlighted ambitions for trillion-dollar scale through ubiquitous transparency. The company navigated tech layoffs in 2022-2023, maintaining relevance in compensation benchmarking amid shifting labor dynamics. |
| Aug 2021 | Series B | Y Combinator Continuity Fund (lead); Bessemer Venture Partners; Andreessen Horowitz | $46M | $400M | Pave is a San Francisco-based startup founded in 2019 that provides a compensation technology platform to help companies benchmark, plan, and communicate employee compensation in real-time, aiming to move startups off spreadsheets. It launched with support from Y Combinator's Summer 2020 batch and had built a network of 900 customers by August 2021, with one-third from Y Combinator companies. The platform leverages data from venture-backed tech firms for benchmarking salaries, equity, and total comp. On August 10, 2021, Pave raised $46 million in a Series B funding round led by Y Combinator Continuity Fund, with participation from Andreessen Horowitz and Bessemer Venture Partners. This valued the company at $400 million post-money, up from $75 million in its prior $16 million Series A in December 2020. The investment signals strong backing from YC, with managing director Ali Rowghani joining the board, positioning Pave as a leader in comptech similar to Brex's trajectory among YC startups. Pave's growth focused on expanding its API-powered benchmarking tools and customer base, particularly within the YC ecosystem, despite potential platform risks from YC investing in competitors. Later rounds included a $100 million Series C in June 2022 at $1.6 billion valuation led by Index Ventures, but these post-date the queried Series B. |
| Dec 2020 | Series A | Andreessen Horowitz (lead); Y Combinator; Bessemer Venture Partners; Andreesen Horowitz; Dash Fund; Bezos Expeditions; Antenna Ventures | $16M | $75M | Pave provides compensation management software with real-time data benchmarking, pay range management, merit cycles, and total rewards communication. The platform serves HR and talent sectors, trusted by over 8,700 companies including Atlassian, Dropbox, and Snowflake, managing $271B+ in total compensation spend. Pave compiles anonymized compensation data for benchmarking decisions. In March 2020, Pave raised $890K in a pre-seed round from investors including Village Global and Dorm Room Fund to build its initial platform. This was followed by a $16M Series A in December 2020 led by Y Combinator, Dash Fund, and Bezos Expeditions to expand API-powered benchmarking tools. Subsequent rounds included $46M Series B in August 2021 led by Andreessen Horowitz and Bessemer Venture Partners, and $100M Series C in June 2022 at $1.6B post-money valuation led by Index Ventures. Pave achieved $10M ARR within 24 months from launch, demonstrating rapid growth through GTM strategies and CEO-led sales. The company positions as a first-mover in digital compensation management amid tech layoffs and labor market shifts. |
| Mar 2020 | Seed | Residence Ventures; Village Global; Y Combinator; Ruud Visser; Graduate Fund; Backend Capital | $1M | - | - |
Who has invested in Pave?
21 investors have backed Pave across its funding rounds, including Andreessen Horowitz, Y Combinator, Bessemer Venture Partners, Y Combinator Continuity Fund, Backend Capital and Index Ventures.
Lead investors include Index Ventures, Y Combinator Continuity Fund and Andreessen Horowitz.
Pave Investors
| Investor | HQ | Rounds | Role | First check |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 3 | Lead | Dec 2020 | ||
| 2 | Participant | Mar 2020 | ||
| 2 | Participant | Dec 2020 | ||
| 2 | Lead | Aug 2021 | ||
| 2 | Participant | Mar 2020 | ||
| 1 | Participant | Mar 2020 | ||
| 1 | Participant | Mar 2020 | ||
| 1 | Lead | Jun 2022 | ||
| 1 | Participant | Jun 2022 | ||
| 1 | Participant | Jun 2022 | ||
| 1 | Participant | Mar 2020 | ||
| 1 | Participant | Jun 2022 | ||
| 1 | Participant | Dec 2020 | ||
This data is available for Pro users. Sign up to see all 21 Pave investors. Start Free Trial | ||||
Benchmark 350K+ Funding Rounds and Disclosed VC Valuation Multiples
Sign up to see data on 350K+ funding rounds and disclosed revenue and EBITDA valuation multiples, from seed, through growth stage, to pre-IPO.
Start Free TrialAcquisitions by Pave
Pave has acquired 1 company to date.
Last acquisition by Pave was on June 28th 2022. Pave acquired Advanced-HR for undisclosed valuation.
Latest Acquisitions by Pave
| Description | Advanced-HR is a San Francisco-based provider of compensation benchmarking and equity management tools for startups and private companies. The firm publishes the annual VC Executive Compensation Survey in partnership with 80 venture capital firms and supplies data to over 1500 companies via its Option Impact platform. Launched in 2023, Option Driver automates cap table modeling, scenario analysis, and incentive planning to align talent acquisition with pre-IPO valuation stages. Advanced-HR's datasets cover salary trends, option grants, and refresh packages across tech, biotech, and fintech sectors. |
| HQ Country | |
| HQ City | San Francisco, CA |
| Deal Date | 28 Jun 2022 |
| Valuation | undisclosed |
| EV/Revenue | |
| EV/EBITDA | |
This data is available for Pro users. Sign up to see all Pave acquisitions and their M&A valuation multiples. Start Free Trial | |
Pave Competitors
Pave competitors include listed companies like ATOSS Software and Freee, and private ones like Visier, SmartHR, Culture Amp and Degreed.
| Company | HQ | Status | Revenue | EBITDA | Valuation | Revenue Multiple |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Private | - | - | $1B | - | ||
| Private | - | - | $1.6B | - | ||
| Publicly listed | $218M | $84M | $1.7B | 6.4x | ||
| Private | - | - | $1.5B | - | ||
| Publicly listed | $214M | $6M | $1.5B | 4.8x | ||
| Private | - | - | $1.4B | - |
Pave Public Comps
Pave is still privately-owned, but its public comps include ATOSS Software, Freee, Amplitude, Hilan, Planisware, Innodata, Red Violet, Clarivate, Business-intelligence and DoubleVerify.
| Last FY | EV/Revenue | EV/EBITDA | ||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Revenue | EBITDA | Last FY | LTM | 2027E | Last FY | LTM | 2027E | |
| $218M | $84M | 7.0x | 6.4x | 18.2x | 17.1x | |||
| $214M | $6M | 6.3x | 4.8x | 237.7x | 65.4x | |||
| $343M | ($76M) | 4.6x | 4.1x | (21.1x) | 98.8x | |||
| $993M | $154M | 1.8x | - | 11.9x | - | |||
| $228M | $78M | 7.3x | 6.7x | 21.5x | 18.4x | |||
| $252M | $47M | 6.8x | 5.2x | 36.6x | 22.7x | |||
| $90M | $24M | 13.2x | 11.7x | 50.0x | 31.7x | |||
| $2.5B | $829M | 2.1x | 2.2x | 6.3x | 5.3x | |||
This data is available for Pro users. Sign up to see all Pave competitors and their valuation data. Start Free Trial | ||||||||
Common questions about Pave
| When was Pave founded? | Pave was founded in 2019. |
| Where is Pave headquartered? | Pave is headquartered in San Francisco, CA, United States. |
| Is Pave publicly listed? | No, Pave is a private, VC-backed company. |
| What is Pave's valuation? | Pave was last valued at $1.6B in its Series C in June 2022. |
| How much funding has Pave raised? | Pave has raised $163M across 4 funding rounds. |
| What was Pave's last funding round? | Pave's last funding round was a $100M Series C in June 2022, led by Index Ventures. |
| Who are Pave's investors? | Pave's investors include Andreessen Horowitz, Y Combinator, Bessemer Venture Partners, Y Combinator Continuity Fund, Backend Capital, Residence Ventures, Village Global, Index Ventures, LocalGlobe, Tudor Havriliuc and 11 others. |
| Which companies are comparable to Pave? | Companies comparable to Pave include Visier, SmartHR, ATOSS Software, Culture Amp, Freee and Degreed. |
| How many companies has Pave acquired? | Pave has acquired 1 company, including Advanced-HR. |
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