Even exceeds $2.5 billion in instant payments to workers from Walmart, PayPal and others

Earned wage access provider Even has surpassed $2.5 billion in lifetime payment volume for instant, on-demand wages to employees of hundreds of companies, including Walmart and PayPal.

Oakland, Calif.-based Even first began offering on-demand wage payments to employees for earned, but not yet paid wages in 2017. While the company would not disclose how much in instant payments had been made in the past year, it did report that volume has been steadily building in the last five years with a major boost experienced during COVID-19. The company reported that about 64% of its users use the on-demand pay feature.

“COVID-19 has caused an acceleration of demand by workers for on-demand payments,” said David Baga, CEO of Even. “There is a sea change occurring in the U.S. in how we pay our workforces. We believe that all workers should have access to the pay they’ve earned when they need it. This amount of volume is a demonstration of that marketplace demand.”

David Baga, who joined Even in March as CEO, was formerly the Chief Business Officer at Lyft and was responsible for building new groups such as Lyft Health. Baga noted that a key differentiator for the rideshare company in its battle with Uber for workers was the ability to provide its drivers with instant payments and that this same battle is now playing out across the country at both companies large and small.

In the PaymentsSource Future of Money report, released November 2020, about 14% of U.S. adults were actively using EWA services to gain access to their paychecks before payday. The figure rose to 22% for Gen Z and 26% for millennials. Additionally, 28% of Gen Z and 30% of millennials reported that while they were not current users of EWA, they were very interested in the service for future adoption.

Baga said that companies are recognizing this financial need among their workforces, particularly with the financial stresses caused by the pandemic, and are seeking new solutions, such asEWA, to help ease their pain.

“Our continued traction with the Fortune 1000 is fueling our growth in members and payments volume,” added Baga. “While the market is moving to adopt EWA, we believe it’s also important for workers to be able to gain access to budgeting, planning and savings tools, which we offer in our mobile app.”

About 90% of Even’s users access the mobile app each week to better understand their financial situation, how much they can spend and what their future earnings in the coming weeks will look like and more. Even’s integration with employers and payroll providers allows the company to be able to forecast future earnings for its users.

Even has more than 650,000 active users and serves a variety of companies including Walmart (in partnership with rival PayActiv), PayPal and United Natural Foods (UNFI). Last October, Even signed Springfield, Mo.-based CoxHealth and its 13,000 workers as it expanded into the healthcare segment.

In June 2020, PayPal and Salesforce CEO Marc Benioff invested in Even in its last fundraising round. In total, Even has raised more than $52 million in five fundraising rounds based on data from Crunchbase, a website that tracks investments in private companies.