Fintech startup wagely bags $5.6m to bring financial wellness to Indonesia

wagely, a Jakarta-based financial wellness platform founded by former Grab and Tokopedia executives, announced that it has raised $5.6 million in a funding round led by Integra Partners.

The fresh investment will be used to accelerate the adoption of wagely’s financial wellness platform, where employees get access to earned wages to cover unexpected expenses and basic needs.

Earned wage access is a more affordable and sustainable alternative to predatory loans and now forms part of companies’ financial wellness offer to their employees.

More than 50 large Indonesian enterprises, state-owned enterprises, and multi-nationals, such as Bentoel Internasional Investama (British American Tobacco), Supra Boga Lestari (Ranch Market), Mustika Ratu, and Kencana Energi Lestari have already partnered with wagely.

Tobias Fischer, the startup’s CEO, said more than 100 million Indonesian lower- and middle-income workers are living paycheck to paycheck and struggle with unexpected financial expenses between paychecks – which in turn impacts businesses with higher turnover, lower productivity, and more employee loans.

“wagely turns paychecks into progress providing financial flexibility for millions of underserved lower- and middle-income workers in Indonesia and beyond,” Fischer added.

wagely was founded by Fischer and Sasanadi Ruka in 2020. The startup hopes to reach over 250,000 Indonesian users this year.

Commenting on the investment, Christiaan Kaptein, partner at Integra Partners, said the strategic participation of several Indonesian investment groups, as well as the Asian Development Bank, underscores wagely’s leadership role in the space and the Indonesian market.

As concerns over COVID-19 continue to grow, employers around the world, including Walmart, Pizza Hut, and Visa, are turning to earned wage access solutions to reduce turnover, enhance productivity, and increase business savings.

Dailypay, a leading US-based earned wage access provider, just recently raised $500 million and reached unicorn status. Other earned wage access providers are backed by Softbank (Payactiv, US), Jeff Bezos and Bill Gates (Wagestream, UK; Minu, MEX), and Peter Thiel (Even, US).