Canadian global fintech firm Payfare, which provides instant payout and digital banking solutions for contract workers, today announced its partnership with U.K. fintech Wise, provider of digital international money transfer solutions for the gig economy, to bring international money transfer capabilities to Payfare’s digital banking app in 2022.
This means beginning next year, Wise will be embedded into Payfare’s digital banking platform, enabling North American contract and gig workers supported by Payfare to quickly send international payments to over 80 countries.
“Wise is committed to providing a best-in-class digital user experience for international transfers, coupled with speed and convenience,” said Ryan Zagone, head of Americas, Wise for Banks, in an Oct. 25 press release. “Payfare is similarly committed to providing a leading instant payout and digital banking solution in which we can work together to bring a faster international money transfer solution to millions of workers in the U.S. and Canada.”
Payfare partners with multiple platforms and marketplaces, such as Uber, Lyft and DoorDash, to provide financial services for their workforce. Payfare says Wise, which helps people and businesses securely move and spend money in over 56 currencies using real-time exchange rates, aligns with its mission to enable financial inclusion and empowerment for the global gig economy.
“To transfer money to family and friends abroad, the workers we support have historically had to use various legacy services that were costly, inconvenient and had hidden fees,” said Marco Margiotta, chief executive officer and founding partner of Payfare. “We couldn’t be more excited to bring this service to our platform in order to deliver more convenience and cost savings to our cardholders.”
Payfare last week also announced its partnership with U.S. financial services firm, Plaid, which enables consumers to connect financial accounts at over 11,000 institutions globally to more than 5,500 apps. Payfare says this partnership aims to streamline onboarding for Payfare users by allowing them to swiftly and securely connect their accounts to the apps and services of their choosing, and to enable new banking features and credit products that are currently under development for launch in early 2022.