NiYO raises USD 13.2M to revamp payroll, benefits platforms

NiYO Solutions Inc., an emerging fintech startup for salaried employees, raised USD 13.2 million in Series A funding to drive the continued expansion of its payroll and benefits platform in India.

In total, the company has raised more than USD 14 million in venture capital and aims to serve 5000 organisations and over one million salaried employees by the end of 2018.

With this fresh funding, NiYO plans to strengthen and expand its product suite for the salaried segment, besides taking the product to tier II and III towns. The funding will also be used for further product development, team expansion and increasing presence in tier I cities.

Employee payroll in India and around the world has traditionally seen very little innovation in the past several decades with banks hardly providing any differentiation to customers. This, coupled with inefficient, paper-driven processes mean that most employers and employees fail to take advantage of tax exemptions and other savings that the law provides for. Same holds true for investment and lending products for the salaried class where the power of payroll is largely ignored in product design.

The addressable market is close to 75 million salaried employees in India who can benefit from a simple payroll and benefits solution which can increase the take-home salaries and simplify financial planning and other banking needs.

NiYO was launched in July 2016 as a pilot in Bengaluru and has already clocked more than 500 corporates and is being used by over 100,000 salaried employees in these organisations, through its partnerships with YES Bank and DCB Bank. NiYO's solutions include salary accounts, meal cards, canteen solutions, corporate gift card, reimbursements account, international travel card and corporate credit cards.

With support for disruptive platforms such as Aadhaar and the Unified Payment Interface (UPI), NiYO will enable its customers to simplify and control their banking, taxation and finance needs.

NiYO comprises of a corporate portal for salary disbursal, payroll card to receive salary and spend on ATM/POS/Online and a mobile app to track transactions and do basic banking functions like fund transfer. With eKYC and self-onboarding enabled on the NiYO app, users can easily access their account details and keep a tab on their expenditures and allowances digitally. It also has a capability to attach bill proof through mobile and also allow digital storage of bill and receipts on the cloud.

The mobile app allows employees to review all card transactions as well as check balances in real time. While it helps the organisations to digitise the benefits and payroll process and be more compliant and transparent, it also provides employees a unique experience of a single card for all requirements. The solution does not require either the corporate or the employee to change bank accounts.

"We deeply believe that the rapidly growing number of salaried employees in India have not seen much innovation when it comes to their own payroll and benefits. They are mobile and app-savvy and very demanding. At NiYO, our core objective is to maximise employees' effective salary by bringing innovations in payroll and benefits processes. Our aim is to optimise the product suite for employees in areas of taxation, lending and wealth," said Vinay Bagri, CEO and Co-founder, NiYO.

The present investment was made by Social Capital, JS Capital Llc (the family office of Jonathan Soros), and Horizons Ventures with participation by existing investor, Prime Venture Partners.