Central
Backed byFirst Round Capital
About Central
Central Payroll, benefits, state compliance & other bullsh*t for startups
Central kills back-office work for startups. While HR/payroll platforms give you software to figure it out, Central actually does all the work using AI agents and human experts: payroll, benefits, compliance, accounting, taxes, and more. That's 10+ hours back every month. Thousands of founders trust Central, including high-growth companies like Magic Patterns, Wordware, and Bitesight. Learn more and start for free at centralhq.com
Founders
Josh Wymer Founder Josh is the CEO at Central. He was the 12th employee at Mixpanel, ran product engineering, and helped scale it to $1b+ valuation. He's also worked as a software engineer at Meta and played baseball at Virginia Tech.
Pranav Kashyap Founder Pranav is the COO at Central, helping other companies automate back-office work. He previously built payment and tax products for millions of users at Stripe, rebuilt Mixpanel's self-serve and messaging products and spent a number of years working with technology companies at McKinsey and Sequoia Capital. He holds a bachelor's degree in Computer Science from IIT Bombay and an MBA from Wharton.
Nilay Modi Founder Product & design
Latest News
Central raises $8.6M from First Round Capital & YC Oct 16, 2025
Central – Accounting, Taxes & R&D Tax Credits + Payroll, Benefits & State Compliance
~70% of every company’s expenses are related to people. But today’s HR/payroll and accounting systems are separate. This leads to lost context, and founders end up with more work by having to answer the same questions repeatedly.
Central now solves this by consolidating your entire back-office: accounting, taxes, R&D tax credits plus payroll, benefits, and state compliance. 200+ YC companies have already made the switch to using Central for everything, including Wordware, Bitesight, Offstream, 1849 Bio and Undermind. Learn more and get started for free at centralhq.com — Why Central for accounting, taxes & R&D credits: One platform for your entire back-office Onboard once and never answer the same question again across vendors Accurate closed books every month Federal, state, and local franchise tax filings Unlimited 1099s for all contractors Complete R&D study & instant redemption to payroll Includes Central payroll, benefits, and state compliance Talk to your financials in Slack Query your burn, runway, revenue, etc. Find docs like P&L, balance sheet, etc Get answers to common financial questions Bookkeeping built for fundraising Better categorization with more company context Proper revenue recognition & asset depreciation Financial summary every month to share with investors Get custom diligence docs & reports fast Dedicated startup CPA in Slack One point of contact who understands your business Message them anytime in Slack Catch mistakes before they happen. White-glove migration / set up in 15 mins Run on QuickBooks or Puzzle (you own your account) Just add us as an admin Historical review and clean up — Comes with payroll, health insurance and state compliance: More info here - centralhq.com
Payroll
Pay US employees Pay global contractors in 200+ countries Unlimited pay runs, one-off payments, reimbursements, etc. Compliance in 50 US states State foreign qualifications and registered agent (required to do business) State payroll registrations (required to run payroll) Workers' compensation insurance (required when you have 1 employee) Government mail handling and past fine resolution
Benefits
Access to a licensed health insurance broker Medical, dental, vision, life, disability insurance Guidance to pick the right plans & save money 401(k)
HR & team management
Offer letters, CIIAA, and other docs I-9 employment verification Onboarding, off-boarding, severance, etc
Central AI Agent in Slack
Find and edit anything like salaries or addresses Start workflows like hiring or firing Retrieve docs like paystubs or certificate of incorporation 24/7 human support & experts (Slack & email) White-glove migration & setup (takes 15 mins)
Offers
First 50 companies (limited offer) - Free payroll, benefits, state compliance (free period based on team size, needs and batch). Add-on accounting, taxes & R&D credits ( see pricing ) YC F25 - Everything above + free accounting (ends when you raise post-YC or after 6 months) One quick call to see demo & setup everything. Migrating? We do all the work. No annual contracts. Cancel anytime.
Company at a glance
Location
Funding History
$8.6M
raised
AI-first back-office platform Central raised an $8.6M seed led by First Round Capital; Y Combinator, Ritual Capital, Multimodal Ventures and others participated
Frequently asked questions
Companies similar to Central
Aleph is AI-native and designed to be the always-on decision layer for modern businesses, offering real-time data collaboration for finance teams and automating reporting, variance analysis, and forecasting. It operates as a global digital advertising powerhouse serving 150+ countries, connecting over 26,000 advertisers to a 3 billion consumer audience and partnering with major platforms such as TikTok, X, Microsoft, Amazon, Pinterest, Reddit, Spotify and Google. Its mission is to make the digital world accessible to all, while connecting global brands with local audiences in emerging markets and empowering businesses and individuals through its Digital Ad Expert education platform. The company also facilitates cross-border payments and credit underwriting through Local Payments by Aleph, supported by a team of over 1,500 digital experts in 75+ offices and backing from investors including CVC Partners, Mercado Libre, Sony, X (formerly Twitter), and Snap. Aleph serves a spectrum of clients from small startups to multinational corporations, boasting a trial-to-customer conversion rate exceeding 90%.
Ambi is building the interface for the AI era - software and hardware that move at the speed of thought. We're creating a living memory system that turns conversations, meetings, and daily signals into one connected knowledge base, across phone, watch, and desktop. Backed and early-stage, headquartered in San Francisco with hybrid flexibility - this is a ground-floor seat on category-defining hardware.
We're building the first AI-native go-to-market agency in the DACH region. Since 2024, we've grown to over €5M ARR and a team of 30+, working with more than 200 leading B2B tech companies.