PayScale and Payfactors join forces to create compensation technology and data powerhouse

Today PayScale, the industry leader in compensation data and technology, and Payfactors, a leading compensation data management company with deep industry expertise, announced that they have merged. Together, the combined company will become one of the largest providers of its kind in North America to help job seekers, employees and businesses get pay right.

PayScale CEO Scott Torrey will become CEO of the combined company with Payfactors CEO Jeff Laliberte taking on the role of Chief Strategy Officer and joining the PayScale board.

“We see an obvious and natural fit between Payfactors and PayScale as we are aligned on a clear mission to empower companies to make compensation a strategic imperative and transform the relationship that employers have with their employees,” said Jeff Laliberte, CEO, Payfactors. “Together, we can better serve the needs of our customers by providing the right data, at the right time, within the right context to better inform human capital management decisions. I’m energized and inspired by the importance of this opportunity and for the continuation of our efforts to accelerate the pace of positive change in our shared industry.”

Insight Partners will make a new equity investment into the combined company, rolling 100% of their Payfactors equity and joining Francisco Partners as part of the PayScale investor base. Ryan Hinkle and David Spiro from Insight Partners will join the new organization’s expanded board of directors. Insight Partners is best known for their investments in more than 400 ScaleUp software companies, including Gainsight, Mimecast, Twitter, DocuSign, Smartsheet and Pluralsight. With more than $25 billion in assets under management, Francisco Partners is one of the most active and longstanding investors in the technology industry with a track record of investing in over 300 technology companies.

Combined, the new organization will have more than 10,000 customers, including more than half of Fortune 500 companies, impacting more than 35M employees, with over 100M visitors to the website each year to research and compare average salaries for more than 10,000 jobs.

Over the course of 2021, PayScale plans to integrate and prioritize product offerings with a direct focus on customer needs and success while continuing to grow its market footprint.

“With the importance and broad reaching implications that the compensation and HR industry is driving as both a conduit of culture and as the largest expense on the balance sheet, this partnership seems very natural,” said Megan Surdo, senior director, Compensation, Aimbridge Hospitality. “As a customer, we’re most excited for the expansive access to a robust and larger data set and the exponential growth of the data in Peer. This will help inform strategic decisions of how we pay and amplify our comp philosophy in a positive direction.”

“The market growth and requirements for effective compensation insights requires benchmarks, data and software designed to address corporate and individual needs while addressing the depth of key issues like pay equity that must use jobs, skills and experience in a comprehensive manner,” said Mark Smith, CEO and Chief Research Officer, Ventana Research. “The combination of PayScale and Payfactors’ expertise, customers, data and products puts them in a position to immediately be a leading force in the compensation market.”