Wages Earned, Wages Paid: Embedded Fintech Clair Raises Over $23M in Series B to Continue its Mission to Provide Secure, Simple Earned Wage Access
Partnerships with Gusto, TriNet, and Others Give Employees What They Want
Clair, the pioneering fintech company offering Earned Wage Access ("EWA") originated by national bank, Pathward®, N.A., today announced that it has raised $23.2M in its Series B led by their Seed round lead investor Upfront Ventures, with participation from existing investors including Thrive Capital.
78% of people are living paycheck-to-paycheck and 83% want to receive their earnings in real time, but rarely have low-cost, transparent options. After medical insurance, on demand access to pay is the most requested feature by America's workforce1, making it a must-have employee benefit. Meanwhile, employers' increasing adoption of high-tech payroll and human capital management platforms has provided a ready market for embedded instant access to earned wages. Many of these platforms are looking for an experienced, compliance-minded fintech solution to bring EWA directly into their apps.
Clair provides an intuitive experience for employees to bridge the cashflow gap between paydays with a seamless integration for employers—meeting the needs of employees, employers, payroll and HCM platforms, and an evolving regulatory environment. Employees can advance their earned wages to solve their liquidity needs, employers attract and retain talent with this highly desired benefit, and Clair is able to offer its partner platforms high confidence that EWA is here to stay through their partnership with a national bank.
"We have crossed 29,000 business locations, and this Series B is arriving at the right time to allow us to double down on this solution," said Nico Simko, CEO and Founder of Clair. "We strongly believe that payroll and workforce management providers are becoming workforce super apps, and embedding instant wage access as a simple 3-click solution right from the scheduling or payroll app they use every day is a major untapped market covering over 50M U.S. employees."
Most recently, Clair announced its partnership with Gusto, an integrated, all-in-one software platform that automates and simplifies company payroll, benefits, and HR. Since launching in July 2024, employees have ranked this as one of their favorite features and 43% of customers take their first advance within 2 minutes.
"This partnership with Gusto validates the team's deep understanding of employee needs, the culmination of years of user obsession," said Aditi Maliwal, General Partner at Upfront Ventures. "The opportunity in front of Clair is massive, and Clair's elegant workflow and ability to integrate with a wide variety of partners make them uniquely positioned to bring Earned Wage Access to millions more workers."
Powered by its partnership with national bank Pathward®, N.A., which is the entity originating all the advances directly to the consumers, Clair is a leading EWA provider offering bank-issued advances with no interest. The company already partners with several workforce management platforms to provide On-Demand Pay to their connected users and facilitate millions of dollars in advances every month.
About Clair
Clair is a leading provider of embedded Earned Wage Access (EWA), empowering workforce management and payroll platforms to offer daily pay access to employees at no cost to employers. Supported by its partnership with FDIC-insured national bank Pathward, N.A., Clair is available at over 29,000 work locations across 29 different industries, increasing retention and financial wellness amid front-line worker shortages. Clair is based in New York and has raised $68.7 million in equity funding from investors including Thrive Capital, Upfront Ventures, Kairos HQ, and Founder Collective. For more information, visit getclair.com.
About Pathward®
Pathward®, N.A., a national bank, is a subsidiary of Pathward Financial, Inc. (NASDAQ:CASH). Pathward is a U.S.-based financial empowerment company driven by its purpose to power financial inclusion. Pathward strives to increase financial availability, choice and opportunity across our Partner Solutions and Commercial Finance business lines. The strategic business lines provide support to individuals and businesses. Learn more at Pathward.com.
Disclosures:
Clair is a financial technology company, not a bank.
All Advances are originated by Pathward®, N.A. All Advances are subject to eligibility criteria and application review. Terms and conditions apply.
1 Based on the results of a Clair impact study, conducted in April 2024, n = 500.
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