Wage, has closed on a $5 million funding round led by Google’s AI-focused venture fund, Gradient Ventures. Wage is an open banking software solution that securely shares payroll data with third parties. Beyond Gradient Ventures, follow-on investment came from 8VC, Pear Ventures, Bloomberg Beta, CoFound Partners, and executives from SoFi, Public, Zillow, and Affirm.
Wage’s Application Programming Interface (API) infrastructure delivers direct-source payroll data instantly, with a credential-less process and logins or document uploads required. The company enables consumers to quickly share their data with third parties they choose – such as lenders, landlords, hiring managers, and more. This may be key in establishing credit parameters like in receiving a loan. Originally founded as Verix in 2018, Wage reports that it has been building its network of payroll partners. Wage currently works with payroll companies covering over 30 million employees who work at firms such as Amazon, Delta Airlines, Best Buy, Starbucks, Dell, Hyatt Hotels, and tens of thousands of others.
Wage contrasts its direct service in contrast to other firms in the payroll data market that are said to frequently scrape their data.
Co-founders CEO Ben Prawdzik and Shaan Patel previously worked at a variety of firms including Gusto, Goldman Sachs, Box, and Bain Capital.
“Historically, payroll data access has been a burdensome process for financial services providers, consumers, and employers,” said Prawdzik. “Our solution is comparable to a credit check. We completely remove the friction point of relying on consumers or their employers to act, whether uploading a document, entering data, taking a phone call, or going through a login flow.”
Zachary Bratun-Glennon, a Partner at Gradient Ventures stated:
“A great deal of credit decisioning is a black box that penalizes people with little-to-no credit history and doesn’t capture one’s full potential. Wage provides accurate and up-to-date payroll data seamlessly and securely – creating a more equitable and inclusive financial ecosystem, and empowering consumers, financial services, employers and others with efficiency and control over the use and access of their data. Wage has seen impressive growth since its inception, and we look forward to supporting its momentum.”