Jify Bags $10 Mn Funding From Accel, Nexus For Its Employee Financial Benefits Platform

Fintech startup Jify has raised $10 Mn from Accel and Nexus Venture Partners as part of its Series A funding round. 

The startup will use the funding to strengthen its product offering and shore up customer acquisition across multiple sectors and cities. The investment will also be used to scale operations and drive adoption among the target audience.

“This round of funding will provide Jify with the capabilities to scale within the Indian market. We will be able to build our teams nationally, offer the best in technology and create an innovative product experience for both employers and employees. The funding will also help us to enhance our client acquisition capabilities,” Jify chief operating officer (COO) and cofounder Anusha Ramakrishnan said.

Jify, founded in 2021 by Ramakrishnan, Anisha Dossa Aibara and Aditya Mehta, is an earned wage access platform that partners with employers to address the liquidity requirements of their workforce. Its flagship offering enables employees to access their earned salary online. 

Earned wage access enables employees to withdraw their accrued earned salary well in advance before their payment cycle. 

Jify said that nearly 70% of India’s 450 Mn workforce lives paycheck-to-paycheck and resorts to emergency credit with high interest charges which drive people towards financial stress. It is this segment that Jify aims to cater to. 

The startup also offers other fintech products such as prepaid cards and financial advisory tools. 

The investment comes months after US-based venture capital (VC) firm Accel selected Jify for its first cohort of Atoms programme and pumped in $250K in pre-seed funding. The startup was also incubated by Sequoia Capital as part of its first cohort of Sequoia Spark Fellowship initiative.

Jify claims to have seen strong adoption of more than 50% by user groups in partner corporations. The startup competes with the likes of Branch, Rain, Payactiv, Refyne, among others.

Despite the purported funding winter, the fintech sector continues to attract investors in droves. According to an Inc42 analysis, fintech emerged as the most preferred sector in the first half of 2022, raising $3.4 Bn via 159 deals. This represented a 35% rise in funding amount and a 39% increase in the number of funding deals compared to the first half of 2021.

Earlier today, lendingtech startup Credit Fair raised $10 Mn in a mix of debt and equity in a seed round led by LC Nueva. On August 3, another fintech software-as-a-service startup Bluecopa raised $2.3 Mn in its seed funding round led by Blume Ventures.

Another fintech startup Twid also closed its $12 Mn Series A funding round led by Rakuten Capital. Recently, Tartan also raised $4.5 Mn in a pre-Series A funding round from a clutch of investors including 500 Global, InfoEdge Ventures, among others.