Earned wage access (EWA) platform Refyne, owned and operated by Refyne Tech Pvt Ltd, has raised $82 million (around Rs 606.7 crore) as a part of its Series B funding round led by Tiger Global Management, the company said in a statement.
Existing international investors QED Investors, partners of DST Global, Jigsaw VC, XYZ Capital, and RTP Global along new investor Digital Horizon also participated in the funding round, the company said.
While the company did not disclose the valuation, Chitresh Sharma, Co-founder and Chief Executive Officer of Refyne told VCCircle in a virtual interaction that the company’s valuation jumped 6.5 times from its previous fundraise in June last year. In that round, it had raised $16 million (around Rs 118.4 crore) as a part of its Series A funding from DST Global, RTP Global, QED Investors, Jigsaw VC and XYZ Capital.
With the latest fundraise, the company has raised $106 million (around Rs 785 crore) till date.
The Bengaluru-based company said that it plans to use the raised capital for product development, expansion of its team, and to ramp up various business functions.
“Most of our investment will go into making businesses and the industry understand what EWA is, and why is it a new concept, and how is it a financial wellness product. Secondly, we are doubling down on our product with overwhelming demands that we are getting and the idea is to have 3 million (users) on our platform by the year end,” Sharma told VCCircle.
Refyne platform, which enables employees to access a portion of their accrued but unpaid salary any time before pay day, claims to have seen a 68x rise in its transacting user base and also claims to have recorded a 165x growth in the number of transactions on its platform, since its inception in 2020.
The company generates revenue by collecting a fee per transaction, Sharma explained adding that it has seen over 500% growth in revenue over the last year.
Refyne was founded by Sharma and Apoorv Kumar and has partnered with more than 150 organisations and also claims to cater to over 700,000 employees.
The company counts Practo, TeamLease, CARS24, Tenon, Shadowfax, Rebel Foods, Acko, BlackBuck, Arti Group and Cafe Coffee Day, among others, as its clients. Sharma said that while there are no direct competitors to Refyne’s platform in India currently, the company indirectly competes with loan sharks and unorganised moneylenders.
Quoting a report, published by Ernst and Young in partnership with Refyne, on EWA and financial well-being in India, the company noted that 81% employees in India face liquidity crunch between pay cycles and close to 60% of employees said they would consider EWA as a deciding factor for their next job.
It highlighted that employers who implemented EWA observed a significant drop in attrition, faster talent acquisition, enhanced workforce productivity, and improved employee net promoter score.
With this and the unorganised space, Sharma continues to be more bullish on the domestic market and does not have any immediate plans to expand its operations globally.
“...there's a lot to be done in India. And when I say a lot, it is actually a lot. So, our focus will be to conquer and enable empowerment and/or financial wellness in the Indian market, which is huge, and that takes a lot of focus and resources..,” Sharma added.
