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§ Private Profile · 39 Broadway Ste 1940, New York City, New York, 10006, United States
Salt Labs is a technology company.
Salt Labs provides a loyalty and payments platform rewarding hourly employees for their work. The company enables businesses to implement a novel system where workers accrue value beyond wages, similar to consumer loyalty programs. This platform integrates with employment structures to acknowledge and quantify employee contributions.
Founded in 2022 by Jason Lee, Alison Stapleton, and Rob Law, Salt Labs stemmed from the insight that hourly workers often lack supplementary benefits common in salaried positions. The founders adapted the prevalent concept of loyalty points into a direct benefit for this underserved workforce. Their core idea was to enable workers to accumulate value tied directly to their time.
Salt Labs serves businesses with hourly workforces, aiming to boost engagement and retention. The platform offers hourly employees an accessible system to earn and redeem rewards, fostering financial control and appreciation. The company's vision is to redefine the compensation landscape for hourly labor, making work a more dynamic and rewarding endeavor.
Salt Labs has raised $26.0M across 3 funding rounds.
Salt Labs has raised $26.0M in total across 3 funding rounds.
Salt Labs is a fintech startup that developed Salt, a loyalty and rewards platform enabling hourly workers to earn a unique, non-expiring digital currency called "Salt" for every hour worked, redeemable for goods, experiences, or savings like IRAs. It targets frontline workers in sectors like hospitality, retail, transportation, and call centers, solving wealth inequality by separating long-term rewards from immediate paychecks—employer-funded without deducting from wages—to foster savings and financial security.[1][2][5][6] Founded in 2022 by DailyPay co-founders Jason Lee and Rob Law, it raised $10M in pre-seed (led by Fin Capital) and $18M total seed funding before Chime acquired it, integrating Salt into Chime Enterprise to expand employer partnerships and earned wage access.[1][2][3][4]
Salt Labs emerged from founders Jason Lee (CEO) and Rob Law's passion for frontline workers, building on their success with DailyPay—a unicorn on-demand pay platform Lee started in his basement, scaling to 1,000 employees, 5M users, and $1.75B valuation by 2022, serving clients like McDonald's and Kroger.[1][2] Lee left DailyPay mid-2022 after advising on worker pay innovations, drawing insights from direct conversations with low-income hourly workers at check-cashing stores and retailers, highlighting gaps in traditional 401(k)s and savings for this demographic.[2] The idea crystallized as a "wealth equality" extension of DailyPay's "income equality" mission: a loyalty app turning work hours into asset-like rewards, announced via a 2023 "Hello World" blog with $10M pre-seed from DailyPay backers like Fin Capital.[1][5] Early traction included diverse enterprise clients; by acquisition, it had raised $18M seed in under a year.[2][3]
Salt Labs rides the earned wage access (EWA) and fintech democratization wave, targeting 100M+ underserved U.S. hourly workers amid gig economy growth, inflation, and retirement access gaps—where traditional 401(k)s fail due to low wages.[2][3] Timing aligns with post-pandemic labor shifts favoring retention tools; market forces like behavioral nudges (e.g., visible rewards) and employer benefits innovation favor it, as firms seek engagement without wage inflation.[6] As a Chime acquisition, it influences the ecosystem by bridging consumer fintech (Chime's 20M+ users) with enterprise HR tech, expanding primary account growth and blending rewards with banking—pioneering "work-centered" financial progress.[3][5]
Chime Enterprise, under Jason Lee, will scale Salt's rewards into comprehensive employer benefits, leveraging Chime's platform for millions more frontline users via partnerships in hospitality and retail. Trends like AI-driven personalization, web3 tokenization for "asset-like" Salt, and regulatory pushes for worker financial wellness will propel growth, potentially redefining total rewards. Salt Labs' evolution from standalone disruptor to Chime powerhouse underscores its mission: turning hourly labor into lasting wealth, now supercharged for broader impact.
Salt Labs has raised $26.0M in total across 3 funding rounds.
Salt Labs's investors include Michael Kim, Third Prime, Fin Capital, Flex Capital, Anthem Venture Partners.
Salt Labs has raised $26.0M across 3 funding rounds. Most recently, it raised $8.0M Other Equity in December 2023.
| Date | Round | Lead Investors | Other Investors | Status |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Dec 19, 2023 | $8M Venture Round | Michael KIM | — | Announced |
| Dec 1, 2023 | $8M Seed | Third Prime | FIN Capital, Flex Capital | Announced |
| Mar 1, 2023 | $10M Seed | — | FIN Capital, Flex Capital, Anthem Venture Partners | Announced |