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Wage develops an infrastructure API that provides credential-less access to payroll and income data. This core product streamlines and secures the process of instant income and employment verification by enabling third-party applications to connect directly to payroll systems without requiring manual credential input from users. The platform focuses on offering a robust and efficient solution for data exchange.
The company was founded in 2018 by Ben Prawdzik and Shaan Patel. Their foundational insight stemmed from the growing need for a more secure and automated method for financial institutions and other service providers to verify income and employment status, moving beyond traditional, often cumbersome, manual processes. Prawdzik and Patel launched Wage to address this critical bottleneck in financial data access.
Wage’s API serves a diverse clientele of businesses, including financial technology firms, lenders, and other service providers that require real-time, verified payroll information. The company's vision centers on becoming the definitive standard for verified income and employment data, simplifying complex financial workflows and fostering innovation across various industries by enabling seamless and secure data access.
Wage has raised $7.0M across 2 funding rounds.
Wage has raised $7.0M in total across 2 funding rounds.
Wage is a fintech startup building an infrastructure API that enables users to securely share their payroll data with authorized third parties without sharing credentials. It serves individuals needing to verify income for loans, rentals, or employment, and businesses or platforms requiring payroll verification, solving the problem of insecure, manual payroll data access that often involves risky credential sharing.[5][7] The company raised $5M in funding to scale this credential-less solution, positioning it amid rising demand for seamless financial data sharing in lending and HR tech.[5][7]
Wage was founded as a fintech infrastructure company, with its $5M funding round announced to expand its payroll data API—details on exact founding year or specific founders are not specified in available sources.[5][7] The idea emerged from the need to modernize payroll data sharing, allowing secure, permission-based access without users handing over login credentials to payroll systems, addressing a key friction point in financial services.[5][7] Early traction is evidenced by the funding, aimed at scaling the API for broader adoption.[5][7]
Wage rides the trend of open finance and payroll data portability, akin to innovations in earned wage access (EWA) platforms that integrate real-time payroll data via APIs for on-demand pay.[2][4] Timing aligns with fintech's shift from rigid pay cycles to flexible, data-driven models, fueled by employee demand for financial wellness tools amid economic pressures like inflation and gig work growth.[2][4] Market forces favoring Wage include regulatory pushes for secure data sharing (e.g., avoiding predatory lending via better verification) and integrations with workforce systems, influencing the ecosystem by enabling faster, fraud-resistant services in HR tech and lending.[2][4][5]
Wage is poised to expand its API amid booming EWA and open banking trends, potentially integrating blockchain for even more secure transactions as the tech matures.[2] Rising adoption of real-time payroll integrations will shape its growth, evolving its influence from niche infrastructure to a standard layer in fintech stacks. As credential-less sharing becomes table stakes, Wage could power broader financial inclusion, tying back to its core mission of secure, user-controlled payroll data flow.[2][5][7]
Wage has raised $7.0M across 2 funding rounds. Most recently, it raised $5.0M Seed in April 2021.
| Date | Round | Lead Investors | Other Investors | Status |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Apr 1, 2021 | $5M Seed | — | Gradient Ventures | Announced |
| Dec 1, 2020 | $2M Seed | — | 8VC, Baseline Ventures, Bloomberg Beta, Capital Factory, Correlation Ventures, FasterCapital, General Catalyst, Hack VC, OVO Fund, Y Combinator, Immad Akhund, Joshua Schachter, Justin Kitch, Karim Atiyeh, Konstantin VON Unger, Leore Avidar, TIM Cederman Haysom, TIM Seears, Trevor Blackwell, William Boebel | Announced |
Wage has raised $7.0M in total across 2 funding rounds.
Wage's investors include Gradient Ventures, 8VC, Baseline Ventures, Bloomberg Beta, Capital Factory, Correlation Ventures, FasterCapital, General Catalyst, Hack VC, OVO Fund, Y Combinator, Immad Akhund.
