Thousands of customers rely on PaySpace, the innovative, cloud-native South African payroll and HR platform.
Global payroll services giant Deel acquired PaySpace in mid-2024 for an undisclosed amount, which rebranded to Deel Local Payroll. Why is this acquisition a significant moment for payroll and HR, and what does the change mean for Deel Local Payroll’s customers and markets?
Q. What is happening in the payroll and HR market?
Payroll and HR management have become more complex and demanding as companies manage distributed workforces, evolving legislation, and intricate payment requirements. Traditional software and stitched-together solutions are not keeping up with these requirements, resulting in payroll errors, delays, poor workforce experience, and compliance issues.
In a poll conducted by Survey Shack among 1,293 HR leaders, 52% said their job complexity has increased significantly, and according to the 2025 Deel Australia Payroll Report, 56% of payroll staff flag inflexible reporting as a major barrier, 41% struggle to respond to employees in a timely manner, and 40% frequently encounter payroll system errors.
The South African company Deel Local Payroll, formerly PaySpace, resolves these issues and provides modern, cloud-native payroll software to the market. In 2024, it was acquired by Deel, a specialist in payroll services to manage global workforces, and in 2025 changed its name to Deel Local Payroll.
Q: Will existing PaySpace customers experience any changes to their service?
Customers of Deel Local Payroll continue to utilise the same robust payroll platform and receive support from the same services team, now enhanced by Deel’s resources. They have access to the same dedicated team, support, and processes. Pricing and contracts also remain unchanged, and customers have access to all the PaySpace platform features that support their payroll and human resource activities.
Q. What does this rebrand mean for Deel Local Payroll’s operations?
Deel Local Payroll continues to operate as an independent subsidiary and a self-service payroll product, now under the Deel umbrella. At the same time, it gains access to Deel’s global network, enhanced R&D investment, and expanded integration capabilities. The PaySpace brand lives on through the PaySpace platform that powers Deel Local Payroll and Deel services.
Deel Local Payroll complements Deel’s global payroll offerings while maintaining its own dedicated team and processes, and it remains committed to serving African and Middle Eastern markets as its core focus.
Q. Who is Deel Local Payroll?
Deel Local Payroll, powered by PaySpace, was founded in 2007 as a cloud-native payroll and HR service provider and platform. It combines over 20 years of payroll and HR expertise with modern technology, serving over 15,000 customers in 44 countries across Africa and the Middle East, including major enterprises like Heineken, Coca-Cola, and Puma Sports.
Q. Who is Deel?
Deel is a global payroll services provider that specialises in facilitating payroll and human capital management across multiple countries. Founded in 2019, it has become one of the fastest-growing unicorns in history, reaching a $1 billion valuation in less than 18 months.
Q. What is the PaySpace platform?
The PaySpace platform is a cloud-native payroll and HR system that provides a unique instance to each customer business, enabling them to run their workloads securely without requiring expensive hardware or the technical debt of ageing software. PaySpace features automatic legislative updates, robust integration with business applications, extensive automation, powerful scalability, secure multi-device access, and Pacey, a WhatsApp-based employee self-service bot.
Q. Why did Deel choose PaySpace?
Deel Local Payroll’s potent combination of experts and technology emerged as “the best of the best” after Deel evaluated many global payroll players. The PaySpace calculation engine now powers Deel’s localised Employer of Record (EOR) and Global Payroll (GP) products and delivers features such as instant gross-to-net calculations, shorter deadlines, and easier payroll management across countries.
Quotes
“PaySpace is a great fit for Deel because the company was already a market leader in MEA and was looking to expand globally. Their founding team is extremely talented and brings a ton of payroll expertise and passion, especially working with global brand names.” – Alex Bouaziz, co-founder and CEO at Deel.
“Taking inspiration and lessons from our customers in Africa and leveraging cutting-edge cloud technologies, we built a true 21st-century payroll service that evolves with the needs of modern companies. The rebranding from PaySpace to Deel Local Payroll builds on the strong foundation we’ve already established.” – Bruce van Wyk, CEO at Deel Local Payroll, powered by PaySpace.
