Vietnam-based EWA firm Ekko bags $4.2m as industry struggles

Ekko, an earned-wage access (EWA) startup based in Hanoi, has raised a US$4.2 million seed round in a mix of debt and equity, the startup tells Tech in Asia.

The fundraise was led by South Korea-based Impact Square, an investor focused on social and environmental issues, and Switzerland-based Foundation Botnar, a philanthropy-focused VC firm.

Ekko expects to hit net profitability before the year ends, says co-founder and CEO Mads Werner. He did not share specific numbers.

Ekko co-founder and CEO Mads Werner (rightmost) with the startup’s management team/  Photo credit: Ekko

The startup has onboarded 100,000 employees from 50 companies, most of whom are factory workers.

Werner says the fresh capital will help Ekko with customer acquisition costs and hiring. At the moment, the startup only has 20 employees.

Founded in 2023, Ekko allows employees to access a portion of their earned wages before payday, earning through processing fees from each transaction. The fees are shouldered either by the employer or the employee, depending on the payment scheme chosen by Ekko’s enterprise client.

The first scheme seeks a monthly subscription fee from employers, with the fee depending on employee count. Werner says that one of Ekko’s clients, a manufacturing firm that has 600 employees, pays around US$1,000 per month to use the service.

The second scheme offers the service at no cost to the company. Instead, employees have to pay a processing fee depending on the total amount they are seeking to advance.

Werner says clients are split in half between the two schemes.

According to the CEO, about 60% of a client’s staff use the EWA service at least once a year. On a monthly basis, that can range between 20% and 30%.

Werner admits that seeking clients in its first year of operations was a challenge, as most companies in Vietnam are unfamiliar with EWA products.

However, he says companies these days avail of Ekko’s service in a bid to boost employee retention, as staff see the EWA product as an additional benefit.

It helps that there are now reputable studies that show how EWA products help employees improve their financial health. For instance, an International Labor Organization survey – which the employees of Ekko’s clients participated in – revealed that majority of respondents believe that access to EWA products helps them avoid predatory loans.

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