Payroll isn’t just a back-office task. It’s a massive, recurring cost center, and a source of ongoing risk and inefficiency for organizations across many industries. Overtime rules. Shift differentials. State and local tax codes. Classification requirements. Break policies. All of it must be reconciled across multiple systems: HR platforms, time-tracking tools, internal policies, and often, email threads.
It’s a Perfect Storm of Complexity.
And the consequences are real. In one instance, our latest portfolio company Celery identified a $200,000 overpayment caused by a single-digit error. In another, a misclassification around lunch breaks led to a multi-million-dollar lawsuit. These aren’t rare mistakes—they’re systemic. Controllers are overwhelmed, and CFOs are forced to accept financial leakage as a cost of doing business, or spend heavily on complex manual review processes (that still don’t completely stop all financial leakage).
The effort required to avoid these issues is staggering. In industries like healthcare and construction, we spoke with companies where teams of up to ten people spend weeks each month just reviewing and auditing payroll. In the U.S., where payroll can run weekly, this problem resets every few days.
How Celery Is Turning the Storm into a Tailwind
Celery’s AI-powered audit agents act as a second brain for finance teams. No integrations or setup needed—just upload your reports. Celery runs over 100 tests across payroll and revenue data to flag errors, policy breaches, margin leaks, and compliance gaps. The process is fast, accurate, and doesn’t require IT to get started.
Their first product, Payroll Guard, has already reviewed over 430,000 payslips and prevented over $2.3 million in losses. Their second product, Profit Shield, surfaces unprofitable clients, high-cost teams, and salary inefficiencies that were previously hidden in plain sight.
This isn’t automation for automation’s sake. This is intelligent infrastructure—purpose-built for financial precision in labor-heavy sectors like healthcare, freight, retail, and construction, where complexity is high and margins are thin.
Why Now
Finance teams are being asked to do more with less, and they’re responding with investment. According to Gartner, 82% of CFOs plan to increase spend on finance tech in 2025, with AI and automation leading the priority list.
But while areas like FP&A and treasury have seen waves of innovation, core financial controls, like payroll auditing, have been left behind. That gap is becoming harder to ignore, especially in sectors with large hourly workforces and recurring payroll cycles.
As compliance requirements grow and data spreads across disconnected systems, smart automation isn’t just helpful, it’s essential. Celery’s customers aren’t replacing headcount, they’re solving problems that were simply impossible to catch manually.
The Size of the Prize
Celery is tackling a multi-billion-dollar opportunity in payroll audit and financial oversight—starting in the U.S., but with clear relevance worldwide. The need for intelligent internal controls is universal, especially in industries where labor is both the largest expense and the hardest to manage.
With a flexible, system-agnostic approach, Celery is well-positioned to expand across verticals and geographies. And with modern fintech infrastructure on the rise, the timing couldn’t be better. According to BCG and QED, fintech’s share of global financial services revenue is expected to more than triple by 2030, driven largely by platform and infrastructure companies like Celery.
Why This Team
Celery’s founding team brings the perfect mix of operational experience and execution power. CEO Yuval Brot, a former Navy commander and repeat founder, leads with precision and focus. COO Hillel Shalev is a CPA and former public company controller who knows the pain of manual oversight firsthand. CTO Noam Slomianko brings deep technical and security expertise, having led innovation efforts in complex, regulated environments.
Together, they’ve built a product that can handle messy, dispersed, real-world data—from time systems, payroll exports, and even HR email threads—and turn it into clean, actionable insight. That’s not easy. But it’s exactly what finance leaders need.
Beyond Controls: Unlocking Strategic Finance
What’s powerful about Celery isn’t just its ability to catch errors. It’s what becomes possible once you trust your data. With accurate, real-time visibility, CFOs can shift from reactive to proactive. They can spot unprofitable facilities. Flag early signs of churn through overtime patterns. Design smarter incentive plans. Optimize headcount.
These aren’t far-off ambitions. They’re real capabilities—emerging from a system that finally understands the nuance of financial operations. In a world where finance is expected to lead the business—not just count the beans—Celery is the unlock.
The Team8 Angle: Part of the ‘Modern CFO Stack’
This investment is part of our broader thesis around AI-first financial infrastructure. CFOs are being asked to lead with data, but most still rely on brittle, manual tools. The demand for smarter systems is real. According to Gartner, 82% of CFOs plan to increase spend on finance tech in 2025. At Team8, we’re backing the companies building that modern CFO stack—including Celery for payroll control, Panax for treasury, Datricks for audit, Bluespine for healthcare spend, and Fijoya for employee benefits.
We’re proud to back the Celery team, and proud to support a portfolio of founders turning messy, overlooked workflows into clean insight and strategic advantage.
For more information, visit their website at celerway.com
Partner
Hadar Siterman Norris is a Partner at Team8 where she invests in Fintech companies.
