Valeria: AI Solution for Payroll Management in the Retail Sector

Valeria, a Barcelona-based startup, has raised $2 million in a funding round led by Venture Friends, with participation from Fortino Capital and 10k Ventures. The goal is to develop a payroll and workforce management platform specifically designed for sectors characterized by high turnover and operational complexity, such as hospitality, retail, logistics, and services.

These sectors face continuous challenges related to staff onboarding and offboarding, variable shifts, and complex compliance requirements, issues that traditional payroll management tools are unable to adequately support. Valeria's platform centralizes payroll calculations, contract management, and compliance, integrating directly with operational and workforce management systems, reducing manual processes and errors.

Previous Experience and the Genesis of Valeria

Pau Laporte, CEO and co-founder, gained experience in companies such as Uber, Getir, and Glovo, where he repeatedly encountered the ineffectiveness of payroll management systems in relation to operational needs. Before Valeria, Laporte worked for almost 10 years in the technical sector, starting in companies in the restaurant industry and with complex operations. He recounted managing 150 riders and encountering difficulties in payroll management due to tips, variable hours, and bonuses, making it difficult to send information to the accountant. Furthermore, onboarding employees during the weekend was problematic due to the accountant's unavailability.

The Challenges of Traditional Payroll Management Infrastructure

The European labor market is undergoing a structural transformation, with a shift from stable, long-term jobs to a workforce characterized by frequent job changes, flexible contracts, variable hours, and continuous onboarding, particularly in service-intensive sectors. Valeria's platform aims to solve these problems, offering a scalable and modern solution.

Integration with Government Systems and AI

One of the main challenges for Valeria is integration with government systems. Many institutions do not have modern APIs, making data exchange difficult. AI has made it possible to automate processes that would have been impossible until a few years ago, enabling the creation of a pan-European platform for payroll management. AI is mainly used for automated onboarding and payroll execution, standardizing data and simplifying international expansion.