Rain, a startup providing employer-integrated earned wage entry (EWA) app coupled with financial-wellness options like overdraft alerts and spending tendencies, has raised $75 million in an all-equity Series 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.
Around 35% of households within the U.S. with an annual revenue beneath $50,000 live paycheck to paycheck, up from 32% in 2019, per a report (PDF) by Bank of America revealed in October.
Paycheck-to-paycheck populations rise with age and will be anyplace within the U.S., although this report signifies they’re highest within the South. Biweekly paychecks will be arduous to attend for when payments are due any day of the month.
EWA platforms enable workers to get a portion of their paychecks early with a small charge and will be much less predatory than different get-cash-now strategies, like high-interest payday loans.
Rain goals to distinguish its presence and entice employers who need to assist workers entry earned wages between their paychecks with automation.
“Because we’re related to all the main payroll and timekeeping programs, and we constructed automated tooling that makes it tremendous simple for us to onboard employers, there’s very minimal handbook work for employers by way of onboarding, and as soon as we go reside, there’s hardly any work day-to-day or pay period-to-pay interval 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 prices a charge equal to an ATM charge, a median of round $3 per transaction, for an prompt transaction. However, workers can even use the free ACH possibility, which credit their account as much as the following enterprise day.
However, the startup doesn’t need to be one other EWA app within the crowded market. It already presents a monetary training 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 really account for 70% of its month-to-month adoption fee, Bradford says, with the EWA at 30%.
“For us, what success seems to be like over time is that the person wants EWA much less and fewer as a result of they’re now saving increasingly,” Bradford stated.
The Series B funding, which noticed participation from Nextalia Ventures and Spark Growth Ventures, and Rain’s present traders together with QED, Invus Opportunities, 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 programs.
The startup can also be engaged on a product to be rolled out later this 12 months 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. Furthermore, it should carry saving accounts later this 12 months with options together with auto-save and rewards.
Rain’s funding comes amid indicators of a extra favorable setting for a fintech ecosystem that had seen practically flat development 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 setting in fintech.
Venture funding in international fintech corporations declined 45% year-over-year to $50 billion in 2023, with an analogous funding degree recorded final 12 months, per PitchBook information shared with TechCrunch. In 2025 thus far, $13.1 billion has been raised by international fintech startups. However, the common deal measurement has elevated 20% year-over-year to $21.94 million from $18.27 million in 2024. Specifically within the EWA house, enterprise funding additionally grew 19% year-over-year to $569 million final 12 months.
Unlike employer-integrated platforms like Rain, employee-side EWA platforms resembling Earnin have confronted crackdowns from regulators over allegedly “predatory” loans for the previous few months. Rain’s method to enabling financial savings and monetary consciousness alongside offering EWA from the employer’s facet with automated options helps it standout.
“Building a extra complete platform of economic wellness merchandise will definitely assist us notice our mission, which finally is to assist thousands and thousands of individuals get on the trail to monetary freedom,” Bradford acknowledged.
The startup, with 175 workers, can also be scaling its go-to-market by constructing a gross sales staff and investments in gross sales enablement and advertising and marketing 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 Series A funding spherical that comprised $66 million fairness and $50 million in debt.
