Instant Financial Raises Seed Round to Help Employees Get Paid Daily

Instant Financial has raised a $1.2 million seed round.

The round was led by VC Firm of the Year, Real Ventures.

With offices in Vancouver and Montreal, the Canadian fintech startup has launched a mobile app to give workers immediate access to their earned pay.

“Everyday tens of millions of hourly workers wake up to the same challenge: they need access to their pay but payday is a several days away,” explains Instant Financial CEO Steve Barha. “The founding team at Instant recognized this and we have solved this problem by giving workers immediate access to their pay.”

According to a 2013 U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, 75 million employees are paid hourly in the United States with these same employees typically waiting up to two weeks to access their pay. Consequently $80 billion in interest and fees is paid to traditional banks and payday lenders by workers.

With Instant’s mobile app employees are able to unlock their unpaid wages on a daily basis.

“We see Instant Financial as a disruptive technology that puts financial control into the hands of service industry employees while providing great value to the employer,” said Real Ventures General Partner JS Cournoyer. “This very large market opportunity that has been underserved by the traditional providers.”

Real Ventures is Canada’s largest and most active seed venture fund.