# Central Business Applications > Central Business Applications Inc. (operating as Central) is an AI-native platform that automates back-office operations for startups—including payroll, benefits, compliance, accounting, and taxes—using a combination of AI agents and human experts. The company was acquired by Mercury in April 2026. Company page on Leadbay: https://mad-max.leadbay.ai/company/centralhq.com · loaded 2026-10-29 ## At a glance - Website: https://centralhq.com - Team based in: San Francisco (Leadbay's record and 2 more) - Incorporated: California (no. 5631196) (register) - Registry: California Secretary of State 5631196 - Founded: 2023 (preqin.com and 2 more) - Founders: Pranav Kashyap - Industry: Software Development - Employees: 62 (employees and founders, investors not counted; centralhq.com and 1 more) - Total funding: $9.2M (centralhq.com and 1 more) - Backed by: First Round Capital, Y Combinator, Ritual Capital, Multimodal Ventures, Alumni Ventures, SurgePoint Capital, Kulveer Taggar, JJ Fliegelman, Nate Matherson, Richard Aberman - Seen in its site's code: Google Tag Manager (googletagmanager.com/gtm.js), Google Analytics (googletagmanager.com/gtag/js), Google Ads (googletagmanager.com/gtag/js?id=AW-), Framer (framerusercontent.com) (read 2026-10-30) - Email: support@central.inc - Address: 149 NEW MONTGOMERY ST SUITE 508 SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94105 ## What it sells, to whom - Central Business Applications Inc. (operating as Central) is an AI-native platform that automates back-office operations for startups—including payroll, benefits, compliance, accounting, and taxes—using a combination of AI agents and human experts. The company was acquired by Mercury in April 2026. ([everydev.ai](https://www.everydev.ai/developers/central-business-applications), [mercury.com](https://mercury.com/blog/mercury-acquires-centralhq)) ## Why it stands out - Y Combinator Summer 2024 (YC S24) batch ([ycombinator.com](https://www.ycombinator.com/companies/central)) - Competes with: Gusto, Rippling, Deel ([linkedin.com](https://www.linkedin.com/posts/dashashunina_congratulations-to-our-friends-at-central-activity-7366507978197274625-FUsB), [centralhq.com](https://centralhq.com/first), [centralhq.com](https://centralhq.com/customers/wyndly)) ## Products and services - Payroll processing (US and global) ([centralhq.com](https://centralhq.com/legal/tos), [ycombinator.com](https://www.ycombinator.com/companies/central), [centralhq.com](https://centralhq.com/first)) - Benefits administration (medical, dental, vision, 401(k)) ([centralhq.com](https://centralhq.com/legal/tos), [ycombinator.com](https://www.ycombinator.com/companies/central), [centralhq.com](https://centralhq.com/first)) - State compliance and registration ([centralhq.com](https://centralhq.com/legal/tos), [ycombinator.com](https://www.ycombinator.com/companies/central), [centralhq.com](https://centralhq.com/first)) - Accounting and tax support ([centralhq.com](https://centralhq.com/legal/tos), [ycombinator.com](https://www.ycombinator.com/companies/central), [centralhq.com](https://centralhq.com/first)) - AI-assisted HR features via Slack ([centralhq.com](https://centralhq.com/legal/tos), [ycombinator.com](https://www.ycombinator.com/companies/central), [centralhq.com](https://centralhq.com/first)) ## Customers and markets - **Customers**: Magic Patterns, Wordware, Bitesight, Wyndly, Generation Lab, EightAI, Idler ([mercury.com](https://mercury.com/blog/mercury-acquires-centralhq), [centralhq.com](https://centralhq.com/first)) - **Markets**: US-incorporated startups (LLCs, C-corps, S-corps) excluding gambling, cannabis, and certain crypto/Web3 entities. ([centralhq.com](https://centralhq.com/), [centralhq.com](https://centralhq.com/pricing), [centralhq.com](https://centralhq.com/first)) ## Team - Josh Wymer, CEO - Pranav Kashyap, Co-Founder - Jordan Matyiku Nuñez, Staff - Albrey Brown, Staff - Nilay Modi, Product & Design Backed by: First Round Capital, Y Combinator, Ritual Capital, Multimodal Ventures, Alumni Ventures, SurgePoint Capital, Kulveer Taggar, JJ Fliegelman, Nate Matherson, Richard Aberman ## Where to find more - [$50/mo per person paid for everything](https://centralhq.com/pricing) - [This page in Markdown, for agents](https://mad-max.leadbay.ai/company/centralhq.com.md) ## Decision makers - [Josh Wymer](https://mad-max.leadbay.ai/person/josh-wymer--centralhq.com.md), CEO - [Pranav Kashyap](https://mad-max.leadbay.ai/person/pranav-kashyap--centralhq.com.md), Co-Founder Work emails and direct phones come with a Leadbay account: https://wow.leadbay.ai/?register=true Where it comes from: 12 sites read (centralhq.com, grandcentralhq.com, everydev.ai, mercury.com, ycombinator.com, linkedin.com, getclera.com, ritualcapital.com, …). ## Signals: what happened - 2026-03-29 · News: Central Acquired by Mercury, Customers Switch to Warp (1 source: [linkedin.com](https://www.linkedin.com/posts/ayushsharma01_ive-never-publicly-spoken-about-this-but-activity-7445536384221794304-v8ae)) - 2025-09-27 · Fundraising: Seed · $8.6M (1 source: [A company database](https://centralhq.com/)) ## Working on now - Operating as a subsidiary of Mercury following acquisition to further automate back-office operations for startups. - Focusing on replacing traditional HR/payroll dashboards with an AI-agent and human-expert model. - Integrating services and operations with Mercury to provide a unified financial and administrative platform. From: [AI-NATIVE Payroll, HR, BENEFITS and compliance](https://centralhq.com/), [Central has joined Mercury](https://centralhq.com/joining-mercury), [centralhq.com](https://centralhq.com/first) ## Summary Central is an AI-native platform designed to automate back-office operations for startups, including payroll, benefits, state compliance, bookkeeping, taxes, and R&D credits [1][2][3]. Unlike traditional software that provides dashboards for self-management, Central uses a combination of AI agents and human experts to perform the administrative work directly on behalf of founders [1][2][4]. The company was founded in 2023 by Josh Wymer, Pranav Kashyap, and Nilay Modi [1][2][4]. It is backed by investors including First Round Capital, Y Combinator, Ritual Capital, Multimodal Ventures, Alumni Ventures, and Surgepoint Capital [5][1]. Its primary customers are startups; as of April 2026, it served nearly 500 startup clients [1][6]. Competitors include traditional HR and payroll platforms such as Rippling, Gusto, and Deel, which many of Central's customers previously utilized [5]. In its latest major news, Central was acquired by Mercury on April 2, 2026, to integrate its payroll and compliance capabilities into the Mercury banking platform [1][6]. [1]: https://mercury.com/blog/mercury-acquires-centralhq "Mercury enters payroll" [2]: https://www.ycombinator.com/companies/central "Central: Payroll, benefits, state compliance & other bullsh*t for startups | Y Combinator" [3]: https://www.ycombinator.com/launches/OR7-central-accounting-taxes-r-d-tax-credits-payroll-benefits-state-compliance "Launch YC: Central – Accounting, Taxes & R&D Tax Credits + Payroll, Benefits & State Compliance | Y Combinator" [4]: https://ritualcapital.com/companies/central/ "Central – Ritual Capital" [5]: https://centralhq.com/first "Central raises $8.6M from First Round Capital & YC" [6]: https://www.linkedin.com/posts/joshwymer_im-extremely-excited-to-announce-that-central-activity-7445504649622876160-0kFz "I'm extremely excited to announce that Central has been acquired by Mercury! | Josh Wymer" [7]: https://linkedin.com/company/centralhq "Central" [8]: https://thestartupbreakdown.com/p/back-office-automation-central "Central: Transforming Back-Office Automation" ## Sources - [Central Business Applications Inc's website](https://centralhq.com) - [AI-NATIVE Payroll, HR, BENEFITS and compliance](https://centralhq.com/) - [Central has joined Mercury](https://centralhq.com/joining-mercury) - [Central Business Applications Inc - 1 AI Tool | EveryDev.ai](https://www.everydev.ai/developers/central-business-applications)