Floatpays, a South African fintech startup, has closed a $4 million seed funding round. The investors in the round include Global Founders Capital, Base Capital, Finca Ventures, Raba Partnership and 4DX Ventures, as well as angels Alan Rutledge, Shaun Hurwitz, Youcef Oudjidane and Olugbenga Agboola.
They were joined by new backers- Founders Factory Africa, Kepple Africa Ventures, Norrsken Foundation and MFS Investments.
Founded in 2019 by Simon Ward, FloatPays is for businesses that want to enhance their employee value proposition. The startup provides on-demand access to pay and enables employees to build financial wellness by helping them reduce their reliance on debt; start saving and learn how to improve their financial habits. It builds financial wellness using a holistic approach that goes beyond on-demand access to pay to include savings and more.
In July 2021, Floatpays joined accelerator programmes, Y Combinator – an initiative known for having backed a number of startups that would later become multi-billion-dollar companies.
Since launch, despite the setback of Covid-19, Floatpays has achieved 43% growth of their employer base and 70% user growth.
“The investment allows us to consolidate our position in South Africa and expand into the rest of Africa. We are accelerating the development of important features that complement our existing product, such as our new interest-bearing savings account that is directly linked to employees’ paychecks”, says Ward.
According to Ward, Floatpays was established as a “small company with big dreams to create a financially inclusive Africa.” As he explains: “I launched Floatpays as a social impact-driven business on a mission to help move employees out of bad debt cycles and into savings and long term financial wellness. Our mission is to educate employees on better personal finance management, support them with financial planning and saving, and give them an alternative to payday lenders/high-interest credit solutions when mid-pay cycle liquidity becomes a problem.”
“We are witnessing the potential technology has in offering fair and transparent financial services products. Floatpays is a leader in the earned wage space and on its way to building the leading trusted brand across the continent. We are excited to partner with Simon and the team in supporting Floatpay’s mission in becoming the financial services platform of choice for Africa’s large and growing workforce”, says George Rzepecki, founder of Raba.
