Pandemic Darlings The pandemic economy, in original documents
Home Profiles OnPay

Profiles · Companies and entities

ProfileCompany or group

OnPay

Other company

PPP
Type
Company or group
Role
Other company
Programs
PPP
Updated

The profile

An Atlanta payroll company that took a $657,832 PPP loan in April 2020, reporting 46 jobs, and had it forgiven that December. It said it more than doubled its staff after mid-2021, and in January 2025 it announced more than $100 million in funding led by Carrick Capital Partners.

Identity and role

OnPay sells payroll, HR and benefits services to small businesses. Jesse Burgess, its founder and chief executive, built the software in 2011 at his grandfather's payroll company and spun OnPay off in 2015. In January 2020 it said it served "more than 10,000 clients across the United States" and had closed a $6 million Series A. "We didn't raise it from venture capitalists. We raised it from individuals," said Mark McKee, its president and chief operating officer.

Pandemic-relief role

The SBA's PPP loan data list a loan to "OnPay, Inc" at 1230 Peachtree St. NE, Suite 120, Atlanta, classified as a payroll-services business (NAICS 541214). SouthState Bank made the loan, approved on April 13, 2020, for $657,832. The borrower reported 46 jobs, or about $14,300 per job. The loan was forgiven on December 9, 2020, for $662,121.43, principal plus interest, less than eight months after approval. The data list no second-draw loan under the company's name or at that address.

The application form Treasury posted on April 2, 2020, asked each borrower to certify, by initialing, that "current economic uncertainty makes this loan request necessary to support the ongoing operations of the Applicant."

After the loan: more staff, then $100 million

On June 29, 2021, OnPay said it would move its headquarters to Ponce City Market in Atlanta, into space that would let it double its Atlanta workforce within 24 months; Burgess spoke of "our fast-growing teams." On November 16, 2022, it said it had more than doubled its headcount since the summer of 2021 and expected to double it again within 24 months.

On January 7, 2025, OnPay announced more than $100 million in new money, a $63 million Series B plus a debt facility, led by Carrick Capital Partners and joined by AB Private Credit Investors and MC Credit Partners. The Atlanta Journal-Constitution reported that the Series B included $53 million invested in August 2024 and $10 million in November, and that before it Burgess had raised only about $6 million and was "mostly self-funded." Burgess told the paper the company had grown to about 200 employees; it said it served more than 25,000 businesses.

None of these announcements mentions the PPP loan.

No enforcement action against OnPay over the loan appears in the records we reviewed.

Where they are now (2025–2026)

OnPay is based at Ponce City Market and said in January 2025 that it expected to create more than 100 jobs in the coming years, many of them in Atlanta.

  • Velocity Global — a Denver employer-of-record company; PPP loan of $2,046,300 in April 2020, forgiven in May 2021.
  • Globalization Partners (G-P) — a Boston employer-of-record company; PPP loan of $2,553,300 in April 2020, forgiven in June 2021.

Sources

Back to top