Each month, nearly 25% of French people land up in a situation of bank overdraft and a majority of these are due to unforeseen financial circumstances and the need for employees to wait for their next paycheck while they face financial crisis. While this generates nearly €7 billion of taxes taken by the banks each year, companies are facing rising costs and recruitment challenges.
With the purpose of resolving these challenges, a French HRtech startup Spayr develops a turnkey platform to offer multiple financial benefits to employees within companies, be it large groups or SMEs.
Amidst rising inflation and a tensed job market, the company just netted €2.5 million in seed funding led by Anthony Bourbon’s Blast.Club alongside participation from FBA (Femmes Business Angels) and business angels specialised in fintech.
Spayr intends to use the funds to support its R&D, strengthen its teams and position itself as the leader in helping employees achieve budget autonomy.
“On average, the requests are around €160 for all users, all sectors included. The innovation is to offer employees 24/7 accessibility and complete autonomy over their remuneration as well as instantaneous payments to really respond to unforeseen events. All this without having to go through a N+1 or a payroll manager, which saves everyone time,” explained Paul Riché, co-founder of the solution.
“Beyond a technological and practical solution, which changes the very fixed rules of salary, we also wanted to think of Spayr as a daily companion. More than one out of two French people consider their financial knowledge to be average. The idea is to give the keys to more autonomy, by providing flexibility on one’s salary and budget education. Spayr allows us to refocus our salary policies on the human element by adapting them to the needs of each individual,” explained Louis Ajacques, co-founder of Spayr.
For Anthony Bourbon, founder of Blast.Club said, “Spayr meets two needs that are more cri<cal than ever to address in the current socio-economic context: offering employees autonomy over their compensation and allowing companies to strengthen their salary policies while saving time for internal teams. This dual approach convinced us and we are very happy to be part of this adventure.”
On-demand salary payments
Spayr was founded in 2021 by Louis Ajacques, Paul Riché and Pierre Olive to offer financial benefits to employees, including the instant payment of a part of their salary already earned over the month in two clicks. The solution is configurable by each company and they can set a customisable withdrawal limit. The on-demand salary payments platform works 24/7 and instantly. This is a long and tedious process for the HR and accounting teams and is rarely used by employees but Spayr simplifies the same in just two clicks.
Currently, the Spayr platform already attracted around 20 small and medium-sized companies and major accounts across the hotel and restaurant industry, distribution, retail, and logistics industries. It offers coverage to 30,000 employees and aims to quadruple the number of users by the end of 2023.
