Salt Lake City — Atomic, the market-leading provider of payroll connectivity solutions, today announced that it has raised a preemptive $40 million Series B funding round. The company will invest the proceeds to advance its vision: to enable consumers with limited access to financial services to invest, save, and build wealth by unlocking the power of their paychecks.

Payroll represents a rich store of consumer data. Making it accessible and interoperable has the potential to drive new, lower-cost financial products for customers, thereby improving their financial outcomes while providing financial institutions with new tools to reduce fraud, improve privacy, and increase customer retention.

“Our goal is to build a fintech infrastructure that enables a new generation of bank accounts and transforms banking applications into consumer-centric platforms,” says Jordan Wright, co-founder and CEO of Atomic.

Atomic’s vision and its solutions have been embraced by some of the most compelling and innovative neobanks and fintech platforms who are reshaping an antiquated financial services landscape, including Coinbase, Dave, Welcome Tech, and Propel, as well as over 70 financial institutions and technology partners. Atomic stands out in the market and is consistently chosen primarily due to two factors: its direct-deposit conversion rates (an industry-leading 75 percent) and its far-reaching consumer coverage. In 2021, Atomic reported that coverage grew to over 75 percent of the US workforce, reaching 125 million workers and spanning more than 450 unique payroll integrations. At year-end, more than 17.5 million consumers had entered an Atomic workflow.

“Switching my direct deposit from a big bank to my neobank was a game-changer for my money,” says Andres Asprilla, one of the millions of everyday Americans accessing fairer financial services powered by Atomic. A certified Microsoft advisor with 1099 income, Andres is actively pursuing an education to become a Microsoft administrator. “Getting my paycheck two days early and instant access to my tax return has saved me from overdraft fees and helped me take control of my finances.”

The Series B round was co-led by Mercato Partners and Greylock, with participation from Core Innovation Capital, Portage, and ATX Venture Partners. The funding follows a Series A round of $22 million announced in October 2021.

“Atomic’s mission to free payroll data serves the entire fintech community,” says Ryan Sanders, managing director at Mercato Partners’ Traverse Growth Fund. “I love the vision to build more on-ramps to financial services and become the dominant infrastructure layer that connects fintech companies and banks to consumers and their paychecks. They have the unique ability to do good for their customers as well as their shareholders at the same time.”

“When we first invested in Atomic in 2020, we believed that consumer-permissioned access to payroll data could ultimately improve consumers’ financial lives if the right third-party data integrator came along,” says Josh Mcfarland, Partner at Greylock. “Today it’s clear, Atomic has created the future of financial services through its unrelenting focus on the data trapped in all of our paychecks.”

With this latest funding, Atomic will continue to invest in growing its team and pioneering new solutions for the industry including enabling consumers to qualify for and repay financial obligations directly from their paycheck, tap earned but unpaid wages ahead of their pay cycle, and securely access their payroll data with the market’s first passwordless authentication with its proprietary Uplink technology.

Key to Atomic’s momentum is a company culture that empowers people to do the most meaningful work of their lives. “Our vision of greater financial fairness for all is extremely compelling,” says Scott Weinert, co-founder and CTO of Atomic. “It helps us attract great people and motivates them to do their best work.”

About Atomic
Atomic is the market-leading provider of payroll APIs, trusted by 12 of the largest fintech firms, including digital-first neobanks, alternative lenders, and digital brokerages, as well as over 70 financial institutions and partners. Atomic’s payroll integrations provide the infrastructure to connect consumers to their financial data for verification of income and employment, automating set-up and updating of direct deposits, repaying financial obligations from their paycheck, optimizing tax withholdings, and accessing earned but unpaid wages.

Atomic simplifies complicated payroll integrations with a single API that covers over 450 unique payroll connections, including incumbent payroll providers, bespoke enterprise solutions, modern HR tech providers, gig-economy platforms, and government systems. Atomic has raised $78.6 million from investors, including Mercato Partners Traverse, Greylock, Core Innovation Capital, Portage, and ATX Venture Partners.

For more insights on the intersection of fintech and payroll, you can subscribe to Atomic’s Intelligence newsletter.