Payroll Automation Becomes Payments Platform
Matt Redler, co-founder and CEO of Panther, on building a modern employer of record
The real prize in global payroll is not charging a monthly admin fee, it is building the software layer that controls recurring salary flows, worker records, and compliance steps across countries. In practice that means replacing email, spreadsheets, and local vendors with one system that generates contracts, runs payroll logic, moves money, and feeds later products like cards, advances, benefits, and domestic payroll. That is the path from service business to payments platform.
-
Legacy EORs and many newer players still depend heavily on people behind the scenes. Panther framed the advantage of deep automation as lower servicing cost, fewer payroll mistakes, faster off cycle runs, and eventually pricing low enough to feel almost free, which is the same economic leap Stripe made in payments by turning painful back office work into software.
-
The comparison point is Gusto and Cash App as much as Deel. Gusto moved payroll from paper and account reps into a shared web app. The next step is payroll in the front, fintech in the back, where the provider monetizes FX, float, instant access to wages, cards, lending, and other services once it sits in the flow of funds.
-
This also explains why global payroll tends to expand into domestic payroll and HRIS. Companies want one source of truth for who works where, who reports to whom, what they cost, and how they are paid. Rippling competes from that angle, bundling payroll with HR and IT, while Panther argued global infrastructure could be offered as an API or extended into U.S. payroll later.
The category is heading toward a borderless system of record that combines domestic payroll, global payroll, EOR, contractor management, and embedded financial services. The winners will be the companies that turn country by country operational work into software, because lower cost and cleaner data compound into broader product scope, better margins, and stronger platform lock in over time.