Pequity is a company.
Pequity has raised $20.0M across 2 funding rounds.
Key people at Pequity.
Pequity was founded by Kaitlyn Knopp (Founder & CEO) and Warren Lebovics (Co-Founder, Chief Product Officer).
Pequity has raised $20.0M in total across 2 funding rounds.
Key people at Pequity.
Pequity was founded by Kaitlyn Knopp (Founder & CEO) and Warren Lebovics (Co-Founder, Chief Product Officer).
Pequity has raised $20.0M in total across 2 funding rounds.
Pequity's investors include Marcy Venture Partners, Norwest Venture Partners, Craft Ventures, First Round Capital, LAUNCH, SV Angel, Wilshire Lane Capital, Peter Bell.
Pequity is an employee compensation management software platform designed for mid-market and enterprise organizations, combining spreadsheet-like ease with scalable automation to streamline comp cycles, manage pay bands, and ensure pay equity.[1][2][3] It serves HR, compensation teams, talent acquisition, and stakeholders at fast-scaling companies like Instacart, Canva, Robinhood, Walmart, and Scale, solving pain points such as time-intensive planning, pay errors, data cleaning, and disparities in pay programs.[1][2][3][4] Customers report saving two weeks on comp planning, achieving 99% reduction in pay errors, and 100% manager satisfaction as of May 2023, with over 100 customers by June 2021 and tools used for more than 5,000 job offers shortly after launch.[1][4]
Founded in 2019 in San Francisco, Pequity has raised $19 million in Series A funding from investors including First Round Capital, Norwest Venture Partners, Designer Fund, and Scribble Ventures, fueling product development and team growth to double its headcount to around 40 by late 2021.[1][4]
Pequity was co-founded in 2019 by Kaitlyn Knopp (CEO, former Head of Global Compensation at Instacart, with prior roles at Google and Cruise) and Warren Lebovics (Chief Experience Officer, former Head of Design at Untapped), alongside early leaders like Jeff Auston (Head of Engineering, ex-VP at Homebase).[1][4][5] Knopp's decade of hands-on experience in Bay Area compensation roles exposed the "clunky" limitations of existing tools for analysis, equity checks, and market comparisons, inspiring her to build a more intuitive platform that integrates with HRIS, ATS, and payroll systems.[4]
The idea emerged from real-world frustrations in managing complex pay programs at high-growth firms, leading to an official launch in 2020 with rapid traction: 100+ customers by mid-2021, including Instacart and Scale.ai, and features like proprietary algorithms for monitoring comp health rolled out by August 2023.[1][2][4]
Pequity stands out in the crowded HR tech space through these key strengths:
Competitors like Figure, OpenComp, and Payscale offer similar benchmarking but lack Pequity's emphasis on seamless execution and visual, collaborative tools.[5]
Pequity rides the wave of heightened focus on pay equity, transparency laws, and D&I in tech, amplified post-2020 by remote work, talent wars, and regulations mandating salary range disclosures.[2][3][4] Its timing aligns with scaling startups and enterprises grappling with bloated comp processes amid economic pressures, enabling cost savings and fairer decisions that boost retention and branding.[1][3]
By automating what was manual (e.g., 2-week savings per cycle), Pequity influences the ecosystem through better people analytics, reducing biases in high-stakes offers at firms like Robinhood and Agility Robotics, and setting standards for tools that evolve with dynamic data.[1][2][4] This positions it favorably against fragmented legacy systems, capitalizing on HR tech's shift toward integrated, AI-driven platforms.
Pequity is primed for expansion with its $19M war chest, likely targeting more enterprise wins, international growth, and AI-enhanced features like predictive equity modeling amid rising minimum wage pressures and hybrid work norms.[1][2][4] Trends like mandatory pay audits and talent scarcity will propel demand, potentially evolving its influence from comp streamlining to full talent lifecycle orchestration.
As a "new class" of software born from practitioner pain, Pequity exemplifies how insider expertise drives HR innovation—equipping companies to reward equitably at scale.[1][3]
Pequity has raised $20.0M across 2 funding rounds. Most recently, it raised $16.0M Series A in June 2021.
| Date | Round | Lead Investors | Other Investors |
|---|---|---|---|
| Jun 1, 2021 | $16.0M Series A | Marcy Venture Partners, Norwest Venture Partners | |
| Dec 1, 2020 | $4.0M Seed | Craft Ventures, First Round Capital, LAUNCH, SV Angel, Wilshire Lane Capital, Peter Bell |
