Capria Ventures led $23 M funding raised by financial wellness platform Wagely

Amidst the current funding drought, Wagely, an Indonesia-based financial wellness platform, has managed to secure $23 million in new funding as the company has paid out more than one million salaries since its founding.

Wagely said in a statement on Monday that a combination of debt and equity financing is included in the most recent funding round.

Together with the involvement of current investors, Capria Ventures, a specialized venture capital firm based in the Global South that invests in applied generative AI, is spearheading the equity portion.

A notable private debt fund has also made a sizable contribution to the round, which will help wagely expand its core earned-wage access (EWA) service into Bangladesh and Indonesia.

According to Wagely, the combined investment shows a great deal of confidence in the product’s ability to improve financial wellbeing in these important markets.

The statement claims that by granting access to pay after each workday, the financial wellness platform helps employees manage their money more wisely.

Employers are given free access to it, and employees can choose to receive it as an optional benefit.

Wagely is credited with introducing this idea to Bangladesh and Indonesia. It also enables users to monitor their pay and access resources for financial literacy, enabling workers to reduce financial stress and get closer to financial freedom.

Wagely claims that in 2023 alone, it has paid out over $25 million in salaries, processed nearly a million transactions, and is available to 500,000 employees, positioning it as the top financial wellness service in the area and one that is poised for ongoing expansion.

As many as 75% of the approximately 195 million workers in Bangladesh and Indonesia, according to the statement, struggle to make ends meet and deal with difficult financial circumstances.

A sizable portion of the workforce lacks the financial resources and assistance needed to enhance their financial wellbeing due to a lack of access to traditional financial services.

“The wagely team has demonstrated excellent execution with impressive growth in providing a sustainable and win-win financial solution for underserved blue-collar workers and employers,

“We see a huge opportunity for wagely to apply Generative AI across multiple use cases, such as automated document processing and local language conversational interfaces for workers to make better financial decisions,” said Dave Richards, Managing Partner, Capria Ventures.