Why We Invested in Pinwheel: Creating a Seamless Link to Payroll Systems for Better Consumer Financial Services

Payroll systems house valuable employment and income data and sit at the top of an individual’s financial stack, their ultimate source of income. For this reason, consumers should be able to access their payroll system from any of their financial accounts, determine how their paycheck gets allocated, and easily make changes to their direct deposit accounts. Consumers should also be able to quickly point lenders and other financial institutions in-app to this payroll data to streamline underwriting and approval processes for various consumer products such as loans, mortgages, leases, and more. That’s why GGV is excited to announce that we’re leading a $50 million Series B for Pinwheel, the leading payroll connectivity API that’s enabling the next wave of financial innovation.

Pinwheel provides a single point of connectivity to every major domestic payroll provider and gig economy platform, covering over 100 million Americans. Developers can integrate Pinwheel into their product, allowing users to easily access their payroll system. This in turn allows Pinwheel’s customers, including financial institutions and digitally native fintech solutions, to offer highly valuable services like direct deposit switching, income and employment verification, paycheck-linked lending, and earned wage access with a single point of connectivity (Pinwheel) vs. building and maintaining multiple integrations with disparate payroll providers.?

Pinwheel was founded in 2018 by a team of serial entrepreneurs and operators who have already made great strides. Co-founders Kurtis Lin and Curtis Lee previously co-founded and built Luxe, which they later sold to Volvo, and co-founder Anish Basu has valuable experience building software products at companies such as Google and Zynga. Other executives have spent time at Plaid and Quovo, and Pinwheel’s early angel investors include executives from Coinbase, Square, Acorns, Wealthfront, and more. Since launching in September 2020, Pinwheel has experienced rapid growth, powering payroll connectivity for customers, such as Square Cash App and Varo. Pinwheel processes over half of all direct deposit switching in the neobank market, and customers are also using Pinwheel for earned wage access.

Pinwheel is solving a big problem today – enabling companies to provide innovative financial products built on payroll access – and has a clear and massive vision for the future, ultimately creating a fairer financial system for all. For example, by embedding Pinwheel, a bank could see that a person has been continuously employed at one job for several years and has received annual raises – valuable information to gauge eligibility for loans, investment services, and credit cards. A lender could offer discounts or incentives to borrowers who elect to have monthly payments deducted directly from their paychecks. Companies could provide earned wage access to allow employees to draw from their paychecks as money is earned instead of during regular pay periods.

Pinwheel is intensely mission-driven to help create a fairer and more transparent financial system for America’s workers, and they are already well on their way to making that happen. We’re thrilled to invest in such a transformational company as Pinwheel, and we’re excited to work with the fast-growing Pinwheel team to build a brighter financial future. Welcome to the GGV family, Pinwheel!