Having settled into its new Waterloo office and expanded into the U.S., Wagepoint is on a roll with its base of paying clients soaring to 900 in the last year.

Founded originally in Nova Scotia, Wagepoint offers an affordable solution to help businesses perform all the tasks associated with payroll through a single platform. That means that small and medium-sized businesses can use Wagepoint to pay employees, deduct taxes, keep records of their payments and similar functions.

The company launched in June 2013, and expanded into the U.S. last August. The American expansion sparked a growth spurt so pronounced that the company had to slow down and take stock last autumn. Then it began to grow again and this winter it had back-to-back months of 50-percent revenue growth. It now has 900 clients and growing.

“A big thing is that once we were in the U.S. we immediately saw a big uptake in our signups,” said CEO Shrad Rao in an interview Friday. “It’s basically doubled our business overnight.”

The U.S. still accounts for only about 20 percent of the company’s client base, but it has shown rapid growth in just eight months. Roa attributes the growth in part to a strong focus on customer service, and takes pride in the fact that the Stevie Awards, a Fairfax, Va.-based group that recognizes international business achievements, presented Wagepoint with a Silver Stevie for customer service this year. And the company was able to raise US$2 million in equity and debt in December, which will help to finance further expansion in the U.S.

“The Human Capital Management tech startup market has been an exciting space over the last couple of years, as employers seek to simplify and streamline aspects of workforce management,” said Sunil Sharma, Managing Partner of Extreme Venture Partners, one of the investors. “Within this HCM space, Wagepoint has carved out its niche, creating a simple, intuitive payroll solution that small business owners and HR managers actually want to use.”

The financing was led by Toronto- and Waterloo-based Extreme and Montreal-based BDC Capital and featured several angels from the U.S. The financing also included a C$500,000 loan through the Business Development Program of the Atlantic Canada Opportunities Agency, the federal economic development agency for the East Coast.

The ACOA funding took place because Wagepoint has seven employees in Nova Scotia – a legacy from its early development in the province. Rao said the company also has several clients in the Atlantic region and it remains an important market for the company. The company's headquarters officially remains in Nova Scotia and will remain there, he said. 

Still the CEO added that one of the company’s key developments in the past few years was settling on the Kitchener-Waterloo region as its Ontario base. Wagepoint went through Hyperdrive, formerly Communitech’s flagship accelerator, and now has its headquarters in Waterloo. Roa said that the company found technological and entrepreneurial mentorship and support in a community small enough to make meaningful connections.

Wagepoint has now grown to a 15-person operation, and the growth will continue. Rao is planning another funding round, likely by the end of the year. It will continue to add staff though Rao prefers to hire slowly to make sure he finds employees that fit with the company’s culture.

“We’ve got a lot on the go, adding new apps and repositioning the company,” he said. He wouldn’t reveal any details but added: “We’ve got some things coming down the pipe that will change the narrative of the company. “

Eye on KW is a regular feature that focus on the startup community in Kitchener-Waterloo.