Humanforce acquires on-demand pay provider Wagestream

Global provider of workforce management and payroll solutions, Humanforce, has announced its acquisition of Wagestream. Wahestream is Australia's largest provider of on-demand pay.

Wagestream, formerly Earnd, was founded in 2018 as a charity-backed and mission-led financial wellbeing organisation. The organisation's goal was to change how employees interacted with their money and how employers deliver financial wellbeing tools to ensure a positive impact on their employees' lives.

The company has only operated for four years but already boasts well-known customer brands, including BPAY, Hungry Jack's, Carnival Cruises, JD Sports and Accor.

This acquisition of Wagestream is Humanforce's second, following the bolstering of its investment in the business by technology-focused private equity firm Accel-KKR in May 2022.

With this success, Humanforce's Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) bookings have grown at a CAGR of 76% over the last three years.

 "Arguably, deskless workforces were the hardest hit since the pandemic, and they're still struggling today – 3 years on. Businesses continue to grapple with talent attraction and retention, while deskless workers are battling rising inflation and interest rates, alongside traditionally lower rates of pay than their white-collar counterparts," says Clayton Pyne, Chief Executive Officer, Humanforce.

"Businesses that can provide innovative, low risk, high impact solutions to alleviate their employees' number one concern – financial stress – is a real game changer in today's environment. Our acquisition of Wagestream Australia aligns with our purpose of empowering deskless workforces with the right tools and technologies to make work easier and life better."

Momentum for Humanforce's financial wellbeing offerings continues to grow. The offerings include earned wage access, automated savings support, and financial education and coaching. Over the last eight months of this fiscal year, the uptake of Humanforces integrated workforce management and financial wellbeing solution is increasing by 71% per month.

Of course, with such a disrupted period in recent memory, employers feel the strain of financial wellbeing in their workforce. This is reflected by AMP's Financial Wellness in Australia 2022 research. The research estimates that the cost of this financial stress across the economy is $66.8 billion - twice the 2020 result.

"Financial stress is an issue that impacts most of the working population, but it's heightened for deskless workers as their earnings are typically irregular and therefore, are often ineligible for traditional financial support," says Josh Vernon, Founder, Wagestream.

"With the combined power of Humanforce's integrated workforce management and payroll solution, employees can manage their shifts, rosters, track their pay, and manage their financial wellbeing with complete transparency through a single, unified Humanforce solution."

"Humanforce is fully committed to helping Wagestream Australia customers continue to deliver a positive employee experience," adds Pyne.

"We are thrilled to join forces to alleviate employees' financial burden while helping businesses beat the talent crunch, so they can focus on improved productivity, compliance confidence and cost control."