LOS ANGELES--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Wrapbook which powers payroll, insurance, and compliance for the entertainment industry today announces $3.6M in Seed funding for its software platform that radically simplifies the grinding and labor-intensive process of onboarding, paying and insuring film and production crews. Wrapbook seeks to be the premier payroll processing platform for the entertainment industry, which encompasses TV, film, commercial production, and live events, and is worth $181 billion, according to the Motion Picture Association. The overwhelming majority of entertainment payroll is processed manually.
Wrapbook automates payroll filings and tax payments, calculating both federal and local taxes in all 50 states. As one of the few entertainment-compliant payroll companies in America, Wrapbook calculates employer fringes and complicated timecards correctly, while collecting union pension and health benefits. When it’s time to wrap, Wrapbook makes payroll and offloading workers digitized and seamless, so those handling productions can focus on what matters most: creating captivating stories.
Typical production crew paperwork processes require two to five on-set payroll coordination personnel to onboard cast and crew, and up to five days of post-production payroll calculations to wrap a project. This impacts production budgets, and drains hours of production time, because essential documents are completed in-person, and on-set. Wrapbook’s digital onboarding tool makes it fast and easy for producers to set up the cast and crew, often days or weeks before shooting, saving hours of startup and administrative paperwork. In times of COVID, anything that can eliminate in-person paperwork also helps to safeguard the health and well-being for cast and crew.
“Wrapbook is the easiest way for employers to compliantly pay employees for a week of work,” says Wrapbook Co-Founder and CEO Ali Javid. “We are here to help employers and employees be paperless to assist with COVID-19 and be AB5-compliant in entertainment and across project-based industries,” Javid says.
“One of the most stressful aspects of working in film and production is wondering whether you’re going to get paid for your job,” says Wrapbook Co-Founder, CMO Cameron Woodward, who previously founded a film and production insurance company. “Wrapbook simplifies and streamlines the business of production from start to finish, which is why we’ve been able to achieve such prolific word of mouth adoption of our software,” Woodward says.
“Wrapbook is the first and only platform of its kind to embrace the worker, enabling them to create and own a fully portable digital profile that securely stores banking details, tax identification, and other essential HR compliance records,” says Equal Ventures General Partner Richard Kerby, who led investment in the Seed Round. “Customers love that the Wrapbook team has combined its deep knowledge of the creative industry with an impressive technical stack to completely reimagine the tedious process of setting up distributed teams,” says Kerby. “We’re very excited to be part of Wrapbook’s journey to transform the future of work,” says Kerby. Wrapbook also received funding from Equal Ventures, Uncork Capital, founder of Paylocity Steve Sarowitz, 4S Bay Partners .
About Wrapbook
Wrapbook provides digital profiles that facilitate compliant onboarding, payment and insurance for employers and project-based workforces in entertainment. Wrapbook enables creatives to focus more on their work and spend less time on complex systems of compliance. Wrapbook is led by a veteran founding team whose deep experience encompasses film and production, payments, and the insurance industry. Wrapbook has offices in Los Angeles, New York City, and Toronto.
Founder Bios
Ali Javid, Co-Founder & Chief Executive Officer
Previously Ali was VP of Business Development at Body Labs, a leading machine learning technology startup which sold to Amazon.
Naysawn Naji, Co-Founder & Chief Product Officer
Naysawn was previously the Chief Technology Officer of Arcus Financial. Arcus is a leading payments platform for banks and retailers.
Hesham El-Nahhas, Co-Founder & Chief Technology Officer
Hesham was previously the Lead Backend Engineer of Arcus Financial. Arcus is a leading payments platform for banks and retailers.
Cameron Woodward, Co-Founder & Chief Marketing Officer
Previously Cameron was the managing partner of Film Casualty Insurance Agency and Co-Founder of Sprinkle Lab a leading commercial video production company.