Cofounder and CEO
Clair
As a Swiss undergraduate student in the U.S. tutoring economics for pocket money, Nico Simko found himself baffled by the inefficiency of the traditional two-week pay cycle. He was surprised to find that payment arrived via a mailed paper check. Short on cash, he'd often find himself visiting his mailbox two or three times a day, hoping his latest remuneration had arrived. While getting paid was an inconvenience, finding a place to deposit his wages felt like an impossibility. It took months for Simko to receive a social security number and further weeks to open a bank account successfully. Was this the norm? Simko wondered, If it had been this tricky for him as a Harvard economics student, how hard was it for someone without his advantages? After working for three years in JPMorgan's payments division on M&A and partnerships, Nico founded Clair in 2020 with Alex Kostecki. Clair made its public debut in 2021 with an industry-leading on-demand pay tool. Since then, Clair has raised over $50M and its product is embedded in HR platforms like Trinet Zenefits and Gusto.
Payroll and workforce management providers are embedding instant wage access and virtual wallets into their platforms to give employers the ability to provide employees with greater options as to when and how they get paid. Yet these embedded solutions suggest another emerging trend: That employees could soon also have access to more affordable consumer bank products and financial tax and health benefits through their employers’ payroll and workforce management platforms, particularly as younger workers look to “unbank” themselves.