$20m investment brings London fintech Salary Finance to US

Fintech firm Salary Finance has raised an eight-figure investment to kickstart its expansion across the Atlantic.

The London-based company secured $20m (c.£15.5m) in a Series B round led by founding investor Blenheim Chalcot and financial services giant Legal & General.

Salary Finance will use the funding to launch and scale its financial wellbeing platform for employees in the US.

The firm said around 17 million working Brits have less than £100 in savings and the average debt has risen 26% since 2013.

With employers beginning to recognise the link between an employee’s confidence in their personal finances and their productivity and wellbeing in the workplace, Salary Finance partners with companies to help their staff move from debt to savings.

Its platform deducts savings deposits and loan repayments from an employee’s salary to simplify their personal finances.

Asesh Sarkar, chief exec at Salary Finance, said: “We are delighted to build on our success in the UK with our US launch.

“We see the same societal challenges in the US, with 40% of American employees lacking any real savings, and carrying personal debt, particularly high-interest debt like credit cards and payday loans.”

Asesh added: “This becomes a never-ending way of life for many, impacting their engagement and productivity at work.”

Nick Frankland, managing director for fintech at Legal & General, commented: “[Salary Finance] will grow in size by over 10 times this year and being awarded Prince Charles’s BITC Responsible Business of the Year 2018 was a real honour.

“At L&G we work really hard in support of businesses we invest in and believe that our job is to put patient capital in touch with impatient technology, especially when it creates fantastic benefit for consumers.”

He continued: “The success of Salary Finance is a terrific endorsement of that strategy.”

Salary Finance was established three years ago and has since reached nearly one million employees in the UK. Employers to join the platform recently include telecoms giant BT, professional services company CapGemini and various NHS trusts and councils.

Blenheim Chalcot fintech partner Dan Cobley, chair of Salary Finance, said: “Since we founded Salary Finance with Asesh Sarkar and Daniel Shakhani in 2015, we’ve seen a strong appetite for the platform from a range of companies that want to help their employees better manage their finances.

“Founded on strong and authentic social principles and solving real problems for employees, it’s inspiring to see the rapid employer adoption and the difference we are making.”

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