Rain, a startup providing an employer-integrated earned wage entry (EWA) app coupled with financial-wellness options like overdraft alerts and spending developments, has raised $75 million in an all-equity Sequence B spherical.
The spherical was led by Prosus at a post-money valuation of $340 million. Rain plans to make use of the brand new funds to assist it add bank card and saving merchandise to its roster, co-founder CEO Alex Bradford, solely tells TechCrunch.
Round 35% of households within the U.S. with an annual earnings under $50,000 live paycheck to paycheck, up from 32% in 2019, per a report (PDF) by Financial institution of America revealed in October.
Paycheck-to-paycheck populations rise with age and may be anyplace within the U.S., although this report signifies they’re highest within the South. Biweekly paychecks may be exhausting to attend for when payments are due any day of the month.
EWA platforms permit workers to get a portion of their paychecks early with a small price and may be much less predatory than different get-cash-now strategies, like high-interest payday loans.
Rain goals to distinguish its presence and appeal to employers who need to assist workers entry earned wages between their paychecks with automation.
“Because we are connected to all the major payroll and timekeeping systems, and we built automated tooling that makes it super easy for us to onboard employers, there is very minimal manual work for employers through onboarding, and once we go live, there is hardly any work day to day or pay period to pay period for them,” stated Bradford.
The Los Angeles-based startup, based in 2019, has onboarded over 2.5 million workers and distributed over $2 billion in earned wages, it says. The Rain app says it helps employers retain workers, too.
Rain targets mid-market and enterprise prospects with over 300 workers. It expenses a price equal to an ATM price, a mean of round $3 per transaction, for an immediate transaction. Nevertheless, workers may also use the free ACH possibility, which credit their account as much as the subsequent enterprise day.
Nevertheless, the startup doesn’t need to be one other EWA app within the crowded market. It already presents a monetary schooling portal, one on one monetary teaching, and a free tax submitting and refund service by way of the taxation resolution supplier april, Bradford says.
Such providers past EWA truly account for 70% of its month-to-month adoption fee, Bradford says, with the EWA at 30%.
“For us, what success looks like over time is that the user needs EWA less and less because they are now saving more and more,” Bradford stated.
The Sequence B funding, which noticed participation from Nextalia Ventures and Spark Progress Ventures, and Rain’s current buyers together with QED, Invus Alternatives, and others, will assist the startup increase additional past a easy EWA app.
In Q3, the startup plans to launch an EWA-secured bank card with a dynamic credit score restrict based mostly on the verified earned wages it has from the employer payroll methods.
The startup can also be engaged on a product to be rolled out later this yr that makes it simpler for workers to make use of their Health Saving Account (HSA) by letting them spend on any card and get reimbursed. Moreover, it’s going to carry saving accounts later this yr with options together with auto-save and rewards.
Rain’s funding comes amid indicators of a extra favorable surroundings for a fintech ecosystem that had seen almost flat progress lately. Funds together with Ribbit Capital are elevating extra money, whereas startups together with Plaid, regardless of elevating a decent-sized spherical of $575 million, have seen a decline of their valuation — indicating a blended surroundings in fintech.
Enterprise funding in international fintech corporations declined 45% year-over-year to $50 billion in 2023, with an identical funding stage recorded final yr, per PitchBook knowledge shared with TechCrunch. In 2025 thus far, $13.1 billion has been raised by international fintech startups. Nevertheless, the typical deal dimension has elevated 20% year-over-year to $21.94 million from $18.27 million in 2024. Particularly within the EWA area, enterprise funding additionally grew 19% year-over-year to $569 million final yr.
In contrast to employer-integrated platforms like Rain, employee-side EWA platforms resembling Earnin have confronted crackdowns from regulators over allegedly “predatory” loans for the previous couple of months. Rain’s strategy to enabling financial savings and monetary consciousness alongside offering EWA from the employer’s facet with automated options helps it standout.
“Building a more comprehensive platform of financial wellness products will certainly help us realize our mission, which ultimately is to help millions of people get on the path to financial freedom,” Bradford acknowledged.
The startup, with 175 workers, can also be scaling its go-to-market by constructing a gross sales group and investments in gross sales enablement and advertising and channel partnerships. It additionally plans to speculate extra in tooling so as to add extra comfort for employers managing their providers.
In 2023, Rain raised a $116 million Sequence A funding spherical that comprised $66 million fairness and $50 million in debt.
