TechConnect: Wagestream Raises $175M Series C Investment
June 21, 2022 | By Adam Henry
This month’s TechConnect Profile is highlighting Wagestream. Founded in 2018, Wagestream is a technology company that provides a financial well-being app founded with charities, designed for frontline workers and built around their pay. Offered through employers like Burger King, Crate & Barrel, University of Chicago and Popeye’s, it makes work more inclusive, fair and rewarding for one million people – by giving them access to fair financial services built around flexible pay. In April 2022, the company announced it raised $175 million in Series C funding to scale up support for underserved, financially-stressed workers across North America and beyond. It also recently established its North American headquarters in Arlington and is hiring dozens of roles to build out its operations in the United States.
AED caught up with Justin Raimo, President of North America, at Wagestream, to discuss its recent Series C raise, its plans to build its business in the United States, and its mission to provide every working person globally complete financial freedom by giving them power over their pay.
Congratulations on the recently announced $175 million Series C raise! What are the company’s plans for the raise as it expands its business in the United States?
Justin: Wagestream was founded to solve a global problem: work isn’t fair or inclusive for frontline workers, because they build their lives around income and a financial system that’s stacked against them. With one of our founding team originally from the United States, we always knew this could be an important market for us. It’s important that we invest in the time and people it takes to get that right, and as we’ve scaled the business across Europe and Australia we’ve become much better equipped to serve the 30 million US frontline workers who are undervalued and underserved by a fragmented, high-cost financial system. We’re excited to now be combining a proposition that’s built with charities and proven to work, with a team that has local knowledge and an idea that will make work fairer for millions of people.
Arlington Economic Development is excited about Wagestream’s decision to locate its North American headquarters in Arlington. Can you tell us the reasons why Wagestream selected Arlington to expand its business?
Justin: Because Wagestream sits at the intersection of work and finance, we partner with a huge range of stakeholders – from employers (our clients), to industry trade groups, to charities and NGOs, to regulators and policy groups. With immediate access to central DC, major East coast hubs and a number of those stakeholder groups, this was the perfect location for us to hire great talent and build out a business that does good at massive scale.
Wagestream’s mission is to improve the financial wellbeing of frontline workers, by making work and money fairer for them. Can you expand on the mission and how you work with companies to accomplish this for frontline workers?
Justin: We founded Wagestream with a group of financial charities and impact funds, operating on a social charter to improve workers’ financial wellbeing. That mission started by putting people back in control of how they get paid – whether it’s daily, weekly, or something else that works for them. It gave them the psychological impact of feeling more in control, and the financial benefit of having liquidity and flexibility over their own income. Guided by our charity and academic partners, we’ve learned a lot about financial wellbeing along the way, and began building out a broader set of tools which help people no matter where they are on their journey with money – from tracking their shifts and pay every day, to building up a rainy day savings fund, to getting free, tailored, financial literacy because money management tips are normally reserved for high net worth individuals. AND most importantly, the service is primarily subsidized by employers – our clients – which means we’re able to provide cheaper, fairer financial services to frontline workers for the first time.
Today, that means we have around 300 employers in the UK, Spain, Australia and now the United States, offering Wagestream to more than a million people – but we’re only just getting started…
About this Profile Series
Arlington's startup ecosystem has been rapidly expanding over the past five years and is quickly becoming recognized as an established innovation hub in the United States. Since 2015, Arlington-based companies have raised over $1.4 billion in venture capital across 144 deals covering several industries, including software, artificial intelligence, cybersecurity, fintech, big data, digital media, and more. AED launched its monthly TechConnect Profiles to highlight and profile companies in our technology startup ecosystem.