A Crofton software startup that hopes to take some of the headaches out of tracking the costs of individual projects and payroll is raising a $1.5 million seed round.
Dapt has created a program that focuses on combining three different types of information — time tracking, accounting and payroll. In the wake of the pandemic, companies are implementing more creative incentive structures for employees such as increased pay for work at night or far from the office, CEO Jim Keeney said, driving demand for innovative solutions like Dapt.
“Everybody needs to do payroll and everyone wants to know if the work they're doing is profitable,” he said.
Standard business software often struggles to keep track of incentives like increased pay at different times. Dapt can ensure carve-outs are built into the software, thus making including specific bonuses easier for companies. The information Dapt provides also gives companies a better way to see what projects are profitable by including more detailed labor cost data.
“Payroll processors are running on platforms that were built and conceptualized at least 30 years ago,” Keeney said. “The complexity of how people are paid now is not something that they’re really suited for.”
Dapt is also capable of evaluating project costs based on employee time tracking data and payroll. For example, a construction company could use Dapt to see how much each project cost, how many staff hours were devoted to each project and how much the company made in revenue.
Keeney plans to use the funding to build the Dapt sales and marketing team. The 10-person company already works directly with Intuit, the creator of the popular small business accounting software Quickbooks as well as human resources giant ADP, to help the companies acquire new customers that need Dapt's software to customize payroll. Keeney's next goal is to create stronger partnerships with other large software companies, like Paychex and Gusto. Dapt has received $1.25 million from venture capital firm Activate Venture Partners and is hoping to close the remaining $250,000 of the round within the next two months.
Prior to the ongoing seed round, Dapt raised capital through self-funding and a friends and family round after being founded in 2021.
The next step for Dapt is to launch a series A round after the company has grown large enough to prove to investors that additional funds could quickly lead to a bigger customer base. Keeney previously worked for FitterWeb Consulting to create websites for startups, giving him a unique look at how the industry works before he began his own startup.
