Rise: Empowering the Global Freelance Workforce Through Hybrid Payroll Solutions
Today, Rise announced its $6.3M Series A raise. Here’s why we participated and why we remain bullish on their vision.
Introduction
Over the past five years, global teams have seen their traditional processes go through a complete transformation as contractors and remote work have become the preferred way to operate.
In fact, according to the World Bank, an estimated 1.57 billion people are self-employed, representing 46.6% of the global workforce.
The gig economy is growing at a pace 15 times faster than traditional employment models, and the freelance platform market is valued at $3.39 billion.
And the main demographics leading this growth? Millennials and Gen-Z.
Incredibly, more than two-thirds of freelancers globally are under the age of 35.
In Asia, this trend is even more pronounced, with 82% of freelancers being 35 years old or younger.
This rising workforce dynamic is completely reshaping the future of employment, with countries like the U.S., India, the Philippines, the U.K., and Pakistan leading in both global crypto adoption and contractor revenue growth.
These trends reflect three key shifts:
The rapid adoption of cryptocurrency
A growing preference among younger generations for freelancing over traditional employment
An increasing reliance by companies on freelance talent for outsourced projects.
Market Opportunity: Challenges and Pain Points in Freelancing
Although this trend has created phenomenal opportunities for international contractors and freelancers, both them and their employers still face a handful of challenges in managing their payments and finances.
Unfortunately, more than 50% of freelancers report experiencing late or missed payments from employers, and nearly 60% struggle with complex tax filing processes.
This has become a prominent issue as businesses are seeking the absolute best global talent while also managing payroll efficiently and compliantly across borders.
At the moment 40% of business owners still face issues with delayed payments, which negatively impacts their operations and significantly damages trust among their staff.
As we can see, the demand for seamless, fast, and compliant payroll solutions is clear.
This is where Rise comes in.
Rise addresses this growing market by providing a platform for global compliance and payroll solutions.
The Rise platform not only handles all relevant onboarding paperwork, but also effectively facilitates payments in both fiat and cryptocurrency across borders.
In the current environment, major incumbents like Paychex and Paycom have yet to embrace stablecoins or blockchain technologies, while newer companies like Remote and Oyster are beginning to explore this space, but still have much work to do.
Rise, however, stands out by offering a truly hybrid approach, combining the best of both Web2 and Web3 infrastructure to meet the needs of modern businesses and freelancers.
Since Rise is Web3-native, being built on the Arbitrum blockchain, they can offer speed and flexibility that other platforms simply can’t.
Rise’s Hybrid Infrastructure: The Best Solution for Global Teams
The hybrid infrastructure at Rise has been excellently designed to simplify complex international payroll needs without sacrificing compliance.
This is why Rise’s Crypto Payroll and Hybrid Payroll have become so important over the past couple of years, especially in the Web3 industry.
For example, if a company employs multiple international contractors across varying countries, all of which request different currencies for payment, Rise makes the entire process seamless for both sides.
As we touched on earlier, the workforce is becoming more and more remote, meaning companies will need to offer flexibility, not only when it comes to the location of their team, but also their payments.
The best talent has shown that they prefer the option to get paid in both local currency and cryptocurrency, which Rise makes possible.
Once an employer onboards to Rise, the platform handles the rest, taking the burden off payroll managers and ensuring compliance across jurisdictions.
While Web3 adoption presents opportunities, there is still a constant need to educate traditional businesses about these new technologies.
This may seem to slow down adoption in the Web2 space, but Rise’s early traction and continued success shows otherwise.
With over 100,000 contractors and 200+ businesses already onboarded, Rise has demonstrated the demand for its solution.
Furthermore, the recent introduction of its Employer of Record and Global Payroll Provider products opens the door for even broader adoption as it simplifies payroll management for small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs).
This is a strong sign to the industry that Rise is not simply replicating existing products, but is rather actively innovating and expanding their services to benefit as many groups as possible.
Thanks to these innovations, Rise’s business model is built on multiple revenue streams, including:
Monthly fees from employers
Transaction fees
Forex commissions
As the platform continues to scale, they have the potential to offer even more new products, such as debit cards for freelancers and a talent marketplace that connects businesses with top global talent.
This diversified approach to revenue ensures that Rise can continue to grow and expand their service offerings as the gig economy evolves.
Conclusion
Rise is continuing to grow their team, their service offerings, and their revenue as they accelerate into 2025 by onboarding new contractors and businesses, launching innovative products, and expanding into new geographies.
Their truly unique hybrid infrastructure positions Rise as the industry leader to meet the increasing demand for compliant, flexible payroll and financial services.
As the freelance workforce continues to expand globally with incredible pace, Rise is expertly positioned to become one of the global leaders in the future of work.