WageFi, a fintech company on a mission to help small businesses provide financial wellness benefits to their employees, today announced it has raised $400k in pre-seed funding from well-known angel investors with deep fintech experience, including former CRO of American Express Ash Gupta, former American Express EVP Manish Gupta, former Goldman Sachs Managing Director & current COO at Nirvana Dipanjan Bhattacharjee, and CRO of BlueVine Mira Srinivasan.
72 percent of Americans face some kind of financial uncertainty or stress at least once per year due to cash flow issues. Compounding the problem, the population that needs that cash the most often has to pay a steep price to access it, and can find themselves in an endless loan/debt cycle. As a result, a number of direct-to-consumer earned/early wage access providers have entered the market in order to put cash in people’s hands when they need it. However, those solutions generally require users to link their bank account or create a new one before they can receive funds, resulting in a cumbersome user process.
This isn’t just a problem for employees — it impacts employers too. Financial uncertainty leads to more than $300 billion in annualized losses for employers due to decreased productivity or employee turnover. So there is a real business need and incentive to help employees feel more financially secure week-to-week.
WageFi is reimagining how the wages are delivered to employees in order to help alleviate that stress, while enabling small businesses to provide their workers with financial wellness benefits. WageFi’s platform integrates seamlessly with an employer’s existing payroll, accounting, and banking platforms to provide employees with earned wage access at no fee. Once onboarded, employers will get a white-labeled prepaid debit card for every employee that is enrolled on the system that can be used for additional features like expense reimbursements or employee rewards. WageFiis building an API-based proprietary platform to expedite the integration.
“Wagefi is solving a critical problem faced by over 50 million people who need access to cash before their scheduled paycheck,” said Ash Gupta. “Often, cash access is challenging — and even when available — the cost can be exorbitant. Naturally, many startups and medium sized companies are addressing the need through a direct to customer solution. Wagefi’s approach is unique and innovative – we are working with both employers and employees – and are creating offerings that are transparent, easy to access and very low cost.”
“Businesses need to understand that the financial health and stability of their employees means much more to the company’s bottom line than just how much they’re paid,” said Prshant Batra, founder & CEO of WageFi. “The payment ecosystem is not aligned specifically for the subprime population. We are on a mission to launch a closed loop solution which will create value for all players involved.”
Prior to WageFi, Batra was Head of Implementation at Marcus (by Goldman Sachs) leading the development of the decision engine for Apple Card, GM Card, Personal Loans and Deposits business. He has more than a decade of experience in financial services across multiple roles in risk, data, oversight, and engineering.
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