14. Rippling

Founders: Parker Conrad (CEO), Prasanna Sankar
Launched: 2016
Headquarters: San Francisco
Funding: $1.2 billion
Valuation: $11.2 billion
Key technologies: Cloud computing
Industry: Enterprise technology
Previous appearances on Disruptor 50 List: 0

When Silicon Valley Bank collapsed in March, San Francisco-based HR tech service Rippling scrambled to find a way to help its customers. After fronting $130 million of the company's own funds to clients to distribute payroll for 50,000 customers, CEO Parker Conrad had to find a way to get hold of the $545 million of its customers' money still locked up with banking partner SVB.  

Raising a financing round seemed the best option. It didn't take long for the serial entrepreneur, who had previously led HR software platform Zenefits (a SEC crackdown at Zenefits led Conrad to resign in 2016 and later pay a fine to settle accusations), to put a rescue plan into action at his new startup Rippling.

As the SVB crisis unfolded quickly in early March, Conrad tapped existing investor Greenoaks Capital Partners and, within just three days, was able to obtain a $500 million Series E round.

The large, fast financing from top-tier firms in such an unusual circumstance showed the clout of this San Francisco-based startup, which handles payroll services for many tech companies. Conrad has noted that the company recovered its funds from SVB – and shifted banking to JPMorgan Chase. He added that the company has $1 billion in cash.

Growing at triple-digit rates, Rippling has looked to grow in the HR software market with an all-in-one service wrapping in payroll, corporate cards, expense management, benefits administration and bill pay. This broader market offering distinguishes the business from many payroll-only software tools. Its comprehensive spend management service was rolled out in 2022.

The company's technology relies on a centralized, integrated platform of handling administrative tasks rather than piecemeal functions from various third-party vendors. Moreover, Rippling provides this service globally in a single system. This makes for less busy work, one place where employee data is entered and one unified record.  

A formula for its success is hiring founders – several of them Y Combinator alumni – who can own products and lead teams.

Rippling is seeking to disrupt legacy global payroll providers such as ADP and Oracle as well as SaaS vendors that specialize in a HR service.

The enterprise software maker works with startups and large companies based in the U.S., U.K, and Canada, and can handle a distributed workforce globally – an increasing need as remote work has taken hold. Rippling opened offices in New York, Beijing and Bangaluru last year.

Recent investors include Bedrock and Kleiner Perkins, with Sequoia Capital and Y Combinator, where the company's first product version in 2017 was developed, invested in earlier rounds.

Looking toward an IPO, last year Rippling hired Adam Swiecicki as CFO from 2023 No. 2 Disruptor company Brex, and is building out the finance team. Additionally, Albert Strasheim was hired as CTO from customer data platform Twilio to lead engineering and scale the company's underlying tech platform.