Payactiv
| Company type | Private |
|---|---|
| Industry | Financial technology |
| Founded | 2012 |
| Founder | Safwan Shah, Sohail Aslam, Ijaz Anwar |
| Headquarters | Milpitas , United States |
Area served | United States |
| Products | Earned wage access platform |
Payactiv is a financial technology firm headquartered in Milpitas, California. The company collaborates with employers to provide workforce financial solutions, focusing mainly on earned wage access, which allows employees to obtain wages they have earned but not yet received prior to the usual payday.
Services
Through Payactiv, workers can retrieve earned income within the current pay cycle either at no cost or by opting to pay a $3.49 fee. The platform seamlessly connects with payroll systems such as ADP, Paychex, and Paycor to enable early access to wages. This solution primarily serves organizations with lower-wage employees who often live paycheck-to-paycheck.
Earned wage access is recognized as a prudent alternative to payday loans, as it involves no debt creation, credit score impact, interest charges, or late payment penalties.
History
Payactiv was established in 2012 by Safwan Shah, Sohail Aslam, and Ijaz Anwar. The company secured $4.3 million in funding during 2014. Walmart adopted Payactiv’s salary advance service in 2017, and by 2019 approximately 380,000 of Walmart’s 1.4 million employees were frequent users of the application.
In 2019, Payactiv facilitated $2.5 billion in early wage disbursements and announced a collaboration with Visa to allow users to receive and spend paycheck advances through a prepaid Visa card.
That same year, Payactiv supported California Senate Bill 472, which sought to establish regulatory guidelines for earned wage access providers within California, including caps on transaction fees and limits on transaction volumes.
During March 2020, amid the COVID-19 crisis, Payactiv joined forces with OnShift to offer early wage access for healthcare and rehabilitation staff. In August 2020, the company completed a $100 million Series C funding round led by Eldridge Industries.
In December 2020, the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) approved Payactiv’s earned wage access program under its sandbox initiative, determining that the service does not constitute traditional lending since it does not generate debt and is therefore exempt from the Truth in Lending Act.
By 2021, Payactiv had formed partnerships with approximately 1,500 employers, including notable companies such as Walmart, Wendy's, and Pizza Hut.