Startup profile for Pave: latest funding, latest known valuation, total disclosed funding, investors, status, sources, and why the company is interesting. Part of the Venture Capital Tracker startup directory.
Venture Capital Tracker logo
Venture Capital Tracker

Startup profile · funding coverage

Pave funding, valuation and investors

Real-time compensation benchmarking and merit-cycle planning for startups.

Keep track of Pave

Save this profile to your VCT watchlist for a quick return.

View watchlist

Funding, valuation & investors

Answer-first snapshot

Latest funding

Series C

$100M · June 2022

Latest known valuation

$1.6B

Series C · June 2022

Total disclosed equity funding

$116M

Excludes debt, grants, acquisitions, secondaries, and IPO proceeds.

Current status

private

growth · San Francisco, CA

Investors in latest funding

Lead: Index Ventures

Other: Andreessen Horowitz , Bessemer Venture Partners

Sources: latest funding Last verified: 2026-07-25

Overview

Pave provides real-time compensation benchmarking and merit-cycle planning for startups and tech companies, integrating with HRIS, ATS, and equity systems. Kristina Shen led a $16M Series A in 2020 with Bessemer participating; the company raised a $46M Series B in August 2021. Index Ventures led a $100M Series C in June 2022 at a $1.6B valuation, concurrently acquiring Advanced-HR (Option Impact) from Morgan Stanley — combining live HRIS-connected data with legacy survey history covering 5,700+ companies post-deal.

Why Pave is interesting

Kristina Shen led a16z's Series A; Index led a $100M Series C at $1.6B while acquiring Option Impact — merging live HRIS data with Morgan Stanley's comp survey history.

Product & use cases

Compensation planning software with real-time benchmarking from integrated HRIS, ATS, and equity tools plus merit-cycle workflow and communications.

  • Comp benchmarking for venture-backed startups and scale-ups
  • Merit cycle planning, approvals, and employee communications
  • Equity and cash compensation planning tied to live market data

Key facts

  • a16z portfolio status: Active
  • Series A (2020): $16M led by a16z; Bessemer participated (TechCrunch)
  • Series C (Jun 2022): $100M led by Index at $1.6B valuation; acquired Option Impact from Morgan Stanley (PR Newswire)
  • 5,700+ companies in combined benchmarking database after Option Impact acquisition (Pave blog)

Funding history (newest first)

Series C

2022-06 $100M Valuation: $1.6B

Source: https://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/pave-raises-100m-series-c-led-by-index-ventures-and-acquires-option-impact-301576878.html

Series A

2020 $16M

Source: https://techcrunch.com/2020/12/03/pave-trove-a16z-series-a/

Investors in our directory

Funds linked from Pave's profile — open a fund page for stage focus and related deal articles.

Andreessen Horowitz Bessemer Venture Partners Index Ventures

Competitive landscape

Edge: Real-time HRIS integrations beat stale surveys — largest private-company comp dataset after Option Impact acquisition merged live and historical data.

Pave leads integrated comp planning for venture-backed companies. Carta competes on equity-native data from cap tables; Radford serves larger enterprises with survey-based benchmarks.

  • Carta Total Comp direct

    Equity-heavy comp data from Carta cap table users.

  • Radford incumbent

    Survey-based executive comp benchmarks; slower refresh cycle.

  • Levels.fyi adjacent

    Crowdsourced tech comp; less HRIS-integrated planning workflow.

Notable stories

  • Founder Matt Schulman launched real-time benchmarking only after hitting a chicken-and-egg problem — companies wouldn't integrate HRIS data without benchmarks, so Pave offered free benchmarking in exchange for data and reached 2,700 integrated customers before Series C (Pave blog).
  • Pave acquired Option Impact from Morgan Stanley in June 2022 the same day it announced $100M Series C — merging Morgan Stanley's survey history with Pave's live HRIS feeds into the world's largest private-tech comp database at the time (PR Newswire).

Industries

Enterprise SaaS Fintech

Related funding articles

Venture Capital Tracker pieces that cover Pave's financing or category context.

FAQs about Pave

Practical answers founders, operators, and investors typically search for.

Real-time compensation benchmarking and merit cycle planning for startups and tech companies.
a16z led Series A; Index led $100M Series C. See /fund/andreessen-horowitz and /fund/index-ventures.
Comp benchmarking product Pave acquired from Morgan Stanley (Advanced-HR) in June 2022 — now branded Pave + Option Impact.
Pave integrates HRIS broadly for cash and equity planning; Carta leverages cap-table-native equity data.
5,700+ in the combined database after the Option Impact acquisition (2022); current count not updated in public filings reviewed.
June 2022 — $100M at $1.6B valuation led by Index Ventures.
Yes — Greenhouse, Workday, Rippling, Carta, BambooHR, and dozens of ATS/HRIS/equity tools.
Majority venture-backed customers; also used by larger tech employers needing real-time private-market benchmarks.
Website All startups Funding news

By Venture Capital Tracker

Last updated:

Editorial note: AI tools assisted with research, structure, or drafting. Venture Capital Tracker retains human editorial responsibility for factual accuracy, relevance, and source quality before publication.