Papaya Global, the company reshaping workforce payments, has been named to the Forbes 2025 Cloud 100, the definitive ranking of the top 100 private cloud companies in the world, published by Forbes in partnership with Bessemer Venture Partners. 

“Being recognized for the 5th year in a row is a great honor,” said Eynat Guez, CEO and Co-Founder of Papaya Global. “It shows our vision - to simplify global workforce management and payments, and enable our customers achieve global scale – is resonating with market leaders, global enterprises, and esteemed publications like Forbes.”

For the fifth year in a row, Papaya Global has earned a spot on the Cloud 100 list, a recognition of its innovation in workforce payments and commitment to redefining how organizations pay and manage their global teams. By leading advancements in global workforce payments automation and contingent workforce management, Papaya is not only streamlining operations but also setting new industry standards for compliance and scale. 

The company’s purpose-built workforce management and payments platform has reimagined the way organizations engage and compensate their people, from employees to contractors to large contingent workforces.  Businesses can pay any worker in local currencies anywhere in the world, with seamless integration into existing payroll and finance systems. With these capabilities, enterprises can confidently scale their workforce while ensuring full compliance and liability protection. 

For the tenth consecutive year, the Cloud 100 reviews submissions from hundreds of cloud startups and private companies each year. The Cloud 100 evaluation process involved ranking companies across four factors: market leadership (35%), estimated valuation (30%), operating metrics (20%), and people & culture (15%). For market leadership, the Cloud 100 enlists the help of a judging panel of public cloud company CEOs who assist in evaluating and ranking their private company peers.

“For the last decade, the Forbes Cloud 100 list has recognized the most innovative private cloud companies in the world, and this year’s standouts are among the most impressive we’ve ever seen,” said Richard Nieva, the Forbes editor of the Cloud 100. “Our honorees highlight the massive sea change that AI has brought to the enterprise, with sky-high growth and valuations.”

“As we mark the 10th year of the Cloud 100 with our 2025 rankings, we celebrate a highly competitive cohort of companies that, for the first time, collectively exceed $1 trillion in value,” said Elliott Robinson, partner at Bessemer Venture Partners. “The cloud is in a period of rapid, AI-driven transformation, with this year’s cohort demonstrating how AI is fundamentally reshaping how the best cloud companies grow, scale, and compete.”

The Forbes 2025 Cloud 100 and 20 Rising Stars lists are published online at www.forbes.com/cloud100. Highlights of the list appear in the August/September 2025 issue of Forbes magazine.

This year, the CEOs of The Cloud 100 and the 20 Rising Stars companies will be honored with a digital content launch, as well as at the exclusive Cloud 100 Celebration hosted by Bessemer Venture Partners and Forbes. A special thank you to the event sponsors, including Cloud 100 founding partner Salesforce Ventures, Amazon Web Services (AWS), Bank of America, Deloitte, Goldman Sachs, Goodwin, HSBC, J.P. Morgan, Morgan Stanley, and Nasdaq.

About Papaya Global

Papaya Global is the platform for global workforce, helping leading enterprises to pay workers compliantly in the local currency of 160+ countries. After having revolutionized payroll by automating manual processes, Papaya is now the first SaaS company to offer its own licensed payments platform, in partnership with J.P. Morgan.

With same-day delivery and low, transparent fees, Papaya makes global payments faster, safer, and more efficient*.

Backed by world-leading investors, Papaya Global has raised more than $450M (most recently at a $3.7B valuation). 

*Papaya Global’s payment services are offered through Azimo, Papaya’s licensed payments arm. Azimo is a payment services provider regulated in five Tier-1 jurisdictions. These licenses allow Papaya, together with its partners, to provide workforce payments worldwide. For further information on Azimo’s licences worldwide, check our licensing page.

About Bessemer Venture Partners

Bessemer Venture Partners helps entrepreneurs lay strong foundations to build and forge long-standing companies. With more than 150 IPOs and 300 portfolio companies in the enterprise, consumer and healthcare spaces, Bessemer supports founders and CEOs from their earliest days through every stage of growth. Bessemer’s global portfolio has included Pinterest, Shopify, Twilio, Yelp, LinkedIn, PagerDuty, DocuSign, Wix, Fiverr, Toast and ServiceTitan, and has $19 billion of assets under management. Bessemer has investment teams located in San Francisco, Silicon Valley, New York, Boston, London, Bangalore, and Tel Aviv. Born from innovations in steel more than a century ago, Bessemer’s storied history has afforded its partners the opportunity to celebrate and scrutinize its best investment decisions (see Memos) and also learn from its mistakes (see Anti-Portfolio).

About Forbes

Forbes champions success by celebrating those who have made it, and those who aspire to make it. Forbes convenes and curates the most influential leaders and entrepreneurs who are driving change, transforming business and making a significant impact on the world. The Forbes brand today reaches more than 140 million people worldwide through its trusted journalism, signature LIVE and Forbes Virtual events, custom marketing programs and 43 licensed local editions in 69 countries. Forbes Media’s brand extensions include real estate, education and financial services license agreements.