Lean, the financial benefits platform designed for the independent workforce, has announced its partnership with Bay Area taxi platform, Flywheel.
Via this partnership, Flywheel taxi drivers will have “access to Lean’s financial benefits for its fleet of drivers, including no-fee instant payouts and access to capital for qualifying employees.”
As noted in an update shared with CI, Lean is “a Fintech platform, deployed through marketplaces, that allows flex workers access to financial tools and critical benefits that have been historically unavailable or costly to workers.”
Beyond providing instant payouts for free, Lean leverages its own proprietary risk model “to deliver more and better financial products to gig workers, such as up to $1000 in advanced capital for qualifying high performers and other critical benefits.”
By extension, these marketplaces are able “to address the financial needs of the underserved gig economy, without the financial, regulatory and compliance burden.”
Lean co-founder and CEO Tilak Joshi stated:
“Lean is excited to partner with Flywheel and partake in their incredible vision to revitalize the taxi space. Lean’s mission is to empower the workers that allow companies like Flywheel to run successfully, and offer financial security to attract and retain top drivers at the company. Flywheel drivers will now have access to unprecedented financial opportunities, including instant access to earnings and access to up to $1000 in no-cost capital.”
As mentioned in the announcement, the taxi industry “is inundated with archaic practices, leaving legacy taxi fleets following outdated payments systems for the over 50 million gig workers employed within the industry.”
Flywheel claims that it is “leading the legacy taxi industry in modernization and dedication to workers.”
Lean is stepping into its partnership with Flywheel “to assist the company in navigating the gig economy with features that provide drivers with instant no-fee payouts, a debit card, app, access to capital in advance and free ATM transactions.”
Lean will “immediately benefit Flywheel’s 50,000 drivers across the Bay area and beyond.”
President of Flywheel Technologies Hansu Kim remarked:
“At Flywheel, we’ve always had an interest in modernizing the taxi industry and Lean is allowing us to take the industry one step further. Through Lean, our drivers can get paid instantly, access additional capital, and financially take control of their future. By providing such a unique service within this industry, we are confident that this will propel our driver experience and retention by directly and immediately providing a positive impact on drivers’ financial lives.”
Lean serves both 1099 and W2 workers “across various industries and is currently partnered with more than a dozen marketplaces within the US, ranging from taxi drivers to construction and healthcare workers.”
The company “recently raised $4.5M in its Seed round in September 2021.”
Lean “enables marketplace companies to offer financial products tailor-made for the 1099 and flex W2 workforce.”
The platform “enables instant payouts in milliseconds, is completely free and also offers $1,000 no-cost cash advances while Lean takes on all the associated risk, compliance, and capital.”
Its platform “is 100% free, and takes less than 2 weeks to get-to-market. Through its existing partners, the platform is rolling out to 200k+ gig workers.”
Lean is backed “by Inspired Capital, Atelier Ventures, Acequia Capital, Oceans Ventures and a number of strategic angels, including founders & execs from Instacart, Uber, Postmates, DoorDash, Handy, Stripe, Coinbase, and Plaid.”
Headquartered in Redwood City, Flywheel is “a technology platform for the taxi industry that connects passengers with licensed, high-quality drivers.”
Flywheel’s TaxiOS “replaces the antiquated meter, payments and dispatch technology with a single device.”
The Flywheel mobile app “allows passengers to order taxi rides in real-time, track arrival via GPS and automatically pay their fare via their smartphone device.”