Not yet payday? Here's Wagely! This Indonesian financial wellness and earned wage access (EWA) startup has just raised an $8.3M Pre-Series A, led by East Ventures' Growth Fund.

• It's active in Indonesia and Bangladesh, which have a combined 150M+ workers.
• It grew its userbase 10x year-on-year in 2021.

Who cashed in? Integra Partners, Asian Development Bank (ADB), Global Founders Capital, Trihill Capital, Blauwpark Partners, 1982 Ventures and Central Capital Ventura (VC arm of Indonesia's largest private bank, BCA) also joined in.

• They're tapping into BCA's wide network for customers and looking into innovating more fintech services with banking partners.

💵  How it works

Instead of offering salary advances or loans, Wagely lets employees of partner companies access their earned (but unpaid) wages ahead of their paydays.

• If you've earned $200 this month, you can access that $200 ahead of your payday through the Wagely app and transfer it to your bank.

What's to love? There are zero costs for companies to offer Wagely, yet they'll enjoy all the benefits of increased productivity and higher employee retention.

• Since it's built to be employee-first, Wagely charges a flat membership fee paid by employees who use the product.

Why it matters. 75% of the population in Asia lives paycheck-to-paycheck. Especially when there's an emergency or sudden payment, they need cash fast.

Though, when employees ask for salary advances, it can be risky, costly and time-consuming. They're essentially a loan from a company that gets paid back with more work hours.

• It disrupts cash flow, requires additional admin work and approval and risks loan defaults.

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🚀  What's next?

They'll be focusing on their Bangladesh expansion, as well as on building more features. The goal? Build a holistic financial wellness platform with savings, insurance, long-term installment loans and financial education.