PayActiv

PayActiv is a financial services company headquartered in Milpitas, California. PayActiv partners with companies to provide employees with financial services such as earned wage access.

Services
To receive earned but yet unpaid wages in the current pay period, employees can select from free options or pay an optional $3.49 fee. The company links with payroll providers such as ADP, Paychex, and Paycor to provide early access wages to employees. The service is mostly used by companies with lower income employees who work to paycheck-to-paycheck.

Earned wage access is viewed as a responsible alternative to payday lending, as the service is offered without recourse, credit impacts, interest, or late fees.

History
PayActiv was founded in 2012 by Safwan Shah, Sohail Aslam, and Ijaz Anwar. In 2014, the company raised $4.3 million in funding. In 2017, Walmart introduced salary advances through PayActiv. As of 2019, an estimated 380,000 of Walmart's 1.4 million employees used the app regularly.

In 2019, the company processed $2.5 billion in early wage payments. That year, the company announced a partnership with Visa that would allow users to receive and spend paycheck advances through a prepaid Visa card.

In 2019, PayActiv sponsored California Senate Bill 472, which would create a regulatory framework for earned wage access (EWA) providers in California. The bill limited the transaction fees and the number of transactions that EWA programs could provide.

PayActiv partnered with OnShift in March 2020 to provide early wage access to workers in healthcare and rehabilitation facilities during the COVID-19 pandemic. In August, 2020 PayActiv raised $100 million in Series C funding, led by Eldridge Industries.

In December 2020, the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) granted PayActiv sandbox approval to provide EWA. The CFPB ruled that Payactiv was not a traditional lender since its EWA program did not create debt, and as such was exempt from the Truth in Lending Act.

As of 2021, the company had partnered with 1,500 employers, including Walmart, Wendy's, and Pizza Hut.