100k+ active customers in the first months – earned wage advance startup done right

Background

Earned wage access is a relatively new credit product growing rapidly alongside BNPL. It means allowing employees to have access to the funds they have already earned before their payday. A lot of job candidates already consider EWA to be an important perk and in the next decade it is expected to become a normal practice since technology enables employers to offer this option in a hassle-free manner thanks to companies like ABHI.  

ABHI is a rapidly growing Pakistani company on a mission to financially empower salaried individuals by providing them with fully automated earned wage access as well as various other business-specific products like payroll financing, invoice factoring, etc. Launched in 2021, ABHI was valued at $90 million in just 9 months since its inception. With over 250+ companies in the network and 100k+ active customers ABHI is quickly becoming the dominant provider on the local EWA market.  

Founders based their decision to start an earned wage advance company on a lifelong experience of work for high profile financial and analytical institutions. It became clear that in similar markets EWA projects are very successful and no one was addressing this need on a high level in Pakistan. This meant there were 200 million people who could potentially need and benefit from an affordable and easily accessible microfinance product like this. 

Challenge

Abhi means “now” which is the cornerstone of the company’s vision. It was important to make access to earned wages instant for the employees and completely effortless for the employer. This lending approach stems from the fact that vast majority of people in Pakistan didn’t have access to quality financial services and it became a common practice to turn to the employer for the accrued wages. ABHI needed to automate this process to address the high demand and secure their share of vast market space. 

The wages earned can be fronted by the finance provider or the employer. Its credit embedded in the business relations with your staff. It’s an unusual business model that requires a powerful and flexible automation platform to operate with the speed and accuracy ABHI envisioned.  

The plan was to have thousands of businesses integrated in a network with their employees using access to the ABHI funds which would be withdrawn from the future paychecks automatically.  The major use case is that payment cycles usually don’t match bill cycles which complicates life for people living paycheck to paycheck.  

“Our partnership with TurnKey Lender opened newer avenues for us to financially empower businesses in Pakistan. We believe in partnering up with companies that help us empower our clients and strengthen our infrastructure.“ 

Omair Ansari

CEO & Co-founder of ABHI 

Solution

ABHI chose TurnKey Lender Standard platform to address its lending automation needs. The platform has become the technology cornerstone used throughout the earned wage advance process, with ABHI effectively capitalizing on TurnKey Lender’s key strengths including:  

• User experience and flexibility  
• Configuration freedom and extensive API capabilities 
• Granular credit product settings 
• All-encompassing end-to-end automation of loan’s lifecycle 
• Shariah compliance 

Over a very short period, ABHI has become the go-to earned wage access provider in Pakistan and business owners widely introduce automated EWA as a benefits program to incentivize the workforce. The workforce accesses funds through ABHI instantly and efficiently through one of three channels: 

• Mobile app 
• SMS 
• WhatsApp 

New use cases arise all the time as this business model just recently became as enabled by technology as it is now. What started as an HR benefit now becomes an integral part of SME’s ecosystem. With TurnKey Lender’s advanced automation, EWA is a comfortable payment option that allows people to get the money they need in a couple of clicks in case of any emergency.  

The key to success of ABHI is the fact that it’s instant. Which enables customers to access their earned wages for a minimal transaction fee.  

“The functionality set TurnKey Lender had caught our eye. The flexibility to adjust to new use cases was key in our decision-making process. When it comes to lending and accounting, it’s very important to be able to maintain and manage it efficiently. When we evaluated TurnKey Lender against others we found it to be more flexible, versatile and cost-efficient.” 

Ali Ladhubhai

Chief Operating Officer of Abhi