BOSTON, Aug. 28, 2018 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Today, Salary Finance - the financial wellbeing platform for employees - announced the completion of a $20 million Series B funding round to scale its platform in the United States, expanding from strong growth in the United Kingdom. The investment round is led by Blenheim Chalcot and Legal & General and will focus on U.S. expansion supported by its new headquarters in Boston, MA.
Founded less than three years ago, Salary Finance has grown rapidly to become a FinTech success story and mainstream employee benefit. Recently featured in a study published by the Harvard Kennedy School, the report revealed that employers in the UK that have used Salary Finance experienced a significant increase in employee retention (28%), while reducing employee credit costs by two-thirds.1
The platform now helps almost one million UK employees pay off debt faster, save regularly and improve their financial habits in partnership with companies like BT, Virgin Active, Hospital Trusts and more. To date, the platform has helped UK employees save on average $785 in interest per year, pay off debt 6-12 months sooner, build employee credit scores and ultimately help them save more.
Now available to participating U.S. employers, the platform aims to address financial challenges Americans are facing. Personal debt is a huge source of stress, as Americans accrue high interest rates on credit cards and payday loans, reaching close to $9 billion2 in payday loan fees each year, and almost half of Americans lack any real savings with 44% unable to cover a $400 emergency.3
“Companies are taking notice of the impact financial stress can have on employees, and Salary Finance presents a unique solution to bring financial wellbeing to the American workforce,” said Asesh Sarkar, Chief Executive Officer of Salary Finance. “We are delighted to build on our success in the UK with our U.S. launch. We see the same societal challenges in the U.S., with 40%4 of American employees lacking any real savings, and carrying personal debt, particularly high interest debt like credit cards and payday loans. This becomes a never ending way of life for many, impacting their engagement and productivity at work.”
Salary Finance has partnered with BofI Federal Bank, the lender of the Salary Finance program and United Way in the U.S.. United Way is the largest privately funded non-profit in the world, to help it reach rapid scale. United Way reaches 60,000 corporate partners, which includes more than half of the Fortune 500. Its payroll giving program annually raises $4.7bn to fight for the health, education and financial stability of every person in every community. United Way is introducing Salary Finance to its corporate partners as an added benefit to their employees.
“We are delighted with the progress Salary Finance has made since we founded the platform with Asesh Sarkar and Daniel Shakhani at Blenheim Chalcot’s West London Venture Builder in 2015,” said Dan Cobley, Chair of Salary Finance and FinTech Partner at Blenheim Chalcot. “The platform is founded on strong and authentic social principles, solving real problems for employees, and it’s inspiring to see employer adoption in the UK and U.S. scaling rapidly.”
“Salary Finance is a terrific example of a big business and a growing business coming together in an economically and socially useful way,” said Nick Frankland Managing Director of Fintech for L&G. “At L&G, we put patient capital in touch with impatient technology, especially when it creates a fantastic benefit for consumers, and Salary Finance is a terrific endorsement of that strategy with huge growth potential.”
To learn more or team up with Salary Finance, please visit SalaryFinance.com/US.
About Salary Finance
Salary Finance is the financial wellbeing platform for employees founded in the United Kingdom and recently launched in the United States. Salary Finance U.S. is based in Boston, MA and operates across the U.S. in partnership with the Salary Finance program lender, BofI Federal Bank. Now offering its platform to nearly one million employees, Salary Finance works with a range of leading businesses including United Way U.S., L&G America, BT, Virgin Active, Health Trusts and more. The company was named Prince Charles’s BITC Responsible Business of the Year 2018. To learn more, visit www.salaryfinance.com/us.
About BofI Federal Bank
BofI Federal Bank is a federally chartered, FDIC insured, full-service bank that provides a wide variety of deposit accounts, as well as financing for single and multifamily residential properties, small-to-medium size businesses in target sectors, and select specialty finance receivables. With approximately $10 billion in assets, BofI Federal Bank provides consumer and business banking products through its low-cost distribution channels and affinity partners. BofI Holding, Inc. (NASDAQ: BOFI) is the holding company for BofI Federal Bank. BofI Holding, Inc.’s common stock is listed on the NASDAQ Global Select Market under the ticker symbol BOFI and is a component of the Russell 2000® Index, the S&P SmallCap 600® Index, and the KBW Nasdaq Financial Technology Index. For more information on BofI Federal Bank, please visit www.bofifederalbank.com.
1 Harvard Kennedy School 2018: The Power of the Salary Link: Assessing the Benefits of Employer-Sponsored FinTech Liquidity and Credit Solutions for Low-Wage Working Americans and their Employers
2 http://www.pewtrusts.org/en/research-and-analysis/fact-sheets/2016/01/payday-loan-facts-and-the-cfpbs-impact
3 https://www.federalreserve.gov/publications/files/2017-report-economic-well-being-us-households-201805.pdf
4 Federal Reserve's Report on the Economic Well-Being of U.S. Households in 2017: 40% of adults said that if faced with a $400 unexpected expense, they would either not be able to pay it or would do so by selling something or borrowing money.
Meagan Fisher
meagan@praytellstrategy.com
203-273-3048
A photo accompanying this announcement is available at http://www.globenewswire.com/NewsRoom/AttachmentNg/d83b5502-336d-427d-8b79-11782467a2f5