People who work but don’t receive a salary — Uber drivers, entrepreneurs, owners of very small businesses, freelancers — fall through the cracks of traditional financial services for obvious reasons.
They do not receive automatic paychecks that can be deposited into accounts that come with debit cards. Efforts to verify their employment sometimes fail. They have spotty cash flow, especially if the rent or another big bill comes due while a client payment is delayed.
A handful of fintechs emerged last year to meet the financial needs of this group, including Joust, Qwil, Steady and Salaryo. They have grown bit by bit, and venture capitalists are starting to pay attention to them.