Malaysia-based financial wellbeing platform Payd announced on Tuesday that it has raised $1.7 million in a seed funding round to expand its Southeast Asian operations, fuelling the growth of the region’s financial tech market.

The round was led by IFS Capital, with participation from 1982 Ventures and The Hive Southeast Asia, a recipient of the Dana Penjana Nasional program, the company said in a statement.

“In the long run, we hope to be a platform that eases the financial worries of the Malaysian workforce, helping build a better engagement between employers and employees,” Payd Co-founder and Chief Executive Officer Justin Kong said.

Payd aims to build the largest mobile financial wellbeing platform for employees, all over Southeast Asia. Towards this end it will be deploying its funds towards brand building, team expansion to accelerate product development, as well as to launch more innovative products and services in the coming months. High net worth angel investors also participated in the funding round.

To date, Payd has garnered over 20,000 employee sign-ups, and has witnessed an increase in enrollment rates of up to 25 percent. This mirrors the consistent success of the brand since its inception, Payd has been experiencing a growth of 120 to 180 percent month-on-month since July 2021, as more Malaysian businesses are now choosing to provide EWA benefits to their employees.

Founded in 2020, Payd is a rising comprehensive earned wage access (EWA) solution provider. Through this B2B2C platform, employers can now seamlessly offer their employees the freedom to choose when to receive the money that they have earned, thus increasing engagement in the workplace, resulting in higher retention rates and improved financial literacy.

Utilizing a framework that is easily integrated with any organisation’s Human Resource (HR) and payroll system, employees will now be able to access up to 50 percent of their income whenever they need it. Companies that are currently partnering with Payd include, Zecon, myTukar and Tropicana.

Malaysia’s iPrice Group raises $5M from Itochu Corporation and KDDI Corporation