20 Things You Didn’t Know about Refyne
Are you familiar with a company called Refyne? If you’re not, you probably will be in the relatively near future. That’s because they’re completely turning the corporate world on its ear by allowing employees to get their pay faster than they’ve ever gotten it in the past. As opposed to forcing employees to wait until the next payday, this is a platform that is helping those individuals access the money they’ve already earned that has not yet been paid out. It has the potential to be a real game-changer for individuals who struggle to make ends meet from one paycheck to the next. That fact alone is obviously interesting enough but there’s a lot about this company that is worth knowing. If you’re curious, here are 20 things about them that make them stand out.
1. They’re based in India
Formed in 2020, the company is based in Bengaluru. This is a company that was formed almost directly because of the Covid pandemic. Employees were finding it more and more difficult to make ends meet because of being forced to stay home and the overwhelming amount of business closures that automatically come with these types of things. As a direct result, the company was formed to help employees get the financial boost they need to keep covering basic costs like housing, food and medical needs while simultaneously helping to ensure that businesses could continue to operate without having even more stress placed on them.
2. There has never been another company quite like this one
It’s safe to say that there has never been another company quite like this one in existence. For years, decades in fact, people have been expected to work for two, three or even four weeks before finally being paid for the work that they’ve put in. That can make it very difficult for employees to make ends meet, especially for those unlucky individuals who only get paid once a month. By allowing individuals to access their pay early, this company is providing individuals with the type of empowerment that many people have only dreamed of in the past.
3. They work with employees of all types
If you think that the only employees the company works with are full-time individuals who’ve been working for a predetermined amount of time, you would be mistaken. The truth of the matter is that they work with all kinds of employees ranging from full-time individuals who have held the same position for years to contract employees who have only been employed for a month or two. The point is, as long as the company in question subscribes to their services and the individual that is requesting the pay has worked the hours required to process the request, there should be no problem in getting that request approved.
4. The company was started to help those suffering from financial crises
The company was largely started to help those living in certain areas of India where there is an overwhelming financial crisis. In fact, there are several areas throughout the country where more than 90% of the individuals living there have been impacted by the pandemic. As such, they are facing financial repercussions as a direct result of it. It’s not just employees who have jobs that are on the lower rung of the ladder that are affected, either. Research has shown that as much as 40% of the professional population in India is also feeling the crunch. That makes a company like this more relevant than it has ever been in the past.
5. More than 100 companies are currently using their services
Currently, more than 100 companies based across India are utilizing their services. Many of India’s biggest companies have come on board, as have a number of smaller companies that are trying to both do right by their employees and ensure that they don’t have their own productivity adversely impacted because the overwhelming majority of their staff are so focused on personal financial issues that they can’t focus on the task at hand while at work. The same research that came up with the numbers of individuals working in India that are affected by the Covid pandemic also discovered that roughly 52% of the individuals working in India believe that they have reduced productivity while they’re at work because they’re spending an inordinate amount of their time focusing on their own financial issues. The very existence of this company is working to change that.
6. They protect the financial well-being of corporations, too
It’s worth noting that they also protect the financial well-being of corporations, not just individuals. That’s because the working capital of any company that utilizes their services is never impacted by utilizing those services, nor is it impacted by having employees that access their pay early. In fact, all of the early payments come out of this particular company’s account, not necessarily the company that the individual in question actually works for. It sounds complicated, but it’s actually quite simple. The idea is to allow employees to withdraw the funds that they’ve already worked to earn and then, upon their regular pay day, those funds will be deducted from their paychecks and reimbursed to Refyne. That helps keep everyone on a level playing field while also ensuring that everyone involved is financially protected.
7. Everything is handled on their smartphone app
Like many things today, everything with the account is handled on a smartphone app. The company has made it as easy as possible for individuals to see exactly how much money they earned that has yet to be paid so they know what they can access and when. All that is required is downloading their app and spending a few minutes creating an account. From there, it’s all very quick and simple. Employees have the added benefit of being able to see exactly where they stand from a financial standpoint, so they know exactly what they have to work with.
8. They are changing the standard of living in urban areas of India
By all accounts, the company is changing the standard of living in many of the urban areas throughout India. Since these are the areas that have been hardest hit by the pandemic, it would only make sense that they are also the areas that are the first ones to experience some much-needed relief as a direct result of this company’s actions.
9. Transactions are handled securely
Of course, all transactions are handled securely. As a matter of fact, the transactions are just as secure as they would be for any online banking app. This is accomplished through the use of several layers of encryption, allowing people to access their accounts and request funds without worrying about whether or not it’s safe to do so.
10. These transactions only take a matter of minutes
Once an account has been set up, the transactions themselves only take a matter of minutes to complete. In most cases, it would be more accurate to say that they can be completed in a matter of seconds. More often than not, the instant that an employee requests funds from Refyne and sends them to their bank account, it shows up in their account by the time they are able to log out of their Refyne account and log into their bank account.
11. They have very few employees so they can keep costs low
Since the company is still relatively new, they are quite keen on keeping their costs as low as possible. So far, they have accomplished this by operating with a very low number of employees, often only about 10 or so individuals. That may not seem like very many people, but they are able to get it done because everything is handled online. As such, it doesn’t take an especially large number of employees to keep everything running smoothly. In fact, the overwhelming amount of operations conducted by the company are automatic, thereby reducing the workload on the employees that they do have.
12. They’re on a mission to help people get away from payday loans
The company isn’t crazy about the idea of people taking out payday loans, something that they have openly said from the beginning. That’s largely because payday loans can be prohibitively expensive to pay back, often causing the individual in question more financial heartache than they had before they took the loan out. Since employees are capable of accessing their funds early, it reduces the need for payday loans, thereby putting people in more control of their own finances.
13. They don’t want people to get tied into credit cards, either
You could also say that the company feels more or less the same way about credit cards. While credit cards are sometimes a good thing to have, a lot of them operate with ridiculously high interest rates and tons of fees that make it risky for a person to own them. Again, the ability to access funds early often reduces the need for these types of things because it empowers employees to use the money that they work for in order to pay for things as opposed to purchasing needed items on credit and then having to pay back that amount plus the interest rate and any additional fees that might be tied to the use of that particular account.
14. They’ve only completed two rounds of funding so far
The company has already been making a lot of waves in the financial world and they’ve only been through two rounds of funding to date. It will be interesting to see what they’re capable of doing after they complete their third and fourth rounds of funding, money that will probably be used to expand their operations and perhaps even hire additional staff members.
15. At some point, they’d like to expand their services
There’s no question that the company would like to expand their services at some point in the future. Right now, they operate across India and they’re adding new companies from that location on a daily basis. Eventually, they would like to expand to include their services in other countries. There is even hope that they can one day become a truly global company, helping people take charge of their finances all over the world.
16. So far, they’ve raised $20.1 million
To date, the company has raised an amount of money that is more than respectable for future operations, totaling $20.1 million dollars through two rounds of funding. That allows them to have a bit more leeway when it comes to their own operations and it’s money that can also be used for expansion, something that they are putting a great deal of effort into at the moment.
17. They raised $16 million during their first round of funding
It’s also worth noting that out of the $20.1 million that they’ve raised so far, $16 million of that came from their first round of funding. Through their second round, the remaining $4.1 million was raised because of the backing of just a couple of major investors. This just goes to show how much other companies that have the capital to back this type of operation believe in a company like this. They may not be the type of company that anyone has really seen before, but their foundation is a solid one and investors have taken notice of that fact. It’s also obvious that most investors recognize the need for a company like this and in doing so, they also recognize the fact that these types of companies will probably become much more popular in the future.
18. They’re currently on target to help more than one million workers
At the moment, the company is on target to have approximately one million customers by the end of the 2022 fiscal year. For a company that was started in the middle of a pandemic and is less than two years old, that’s saying quite a lot.
19. Employees who work for them are passionate about what they do
Employees who actually work for the company are very passionate about the mission that they’re on. That’s precisely why the company can operate with relatively few employees. The individuals who work for them are so passionate about what they do that they’re willing to put in the time and the effort in order to make a success out of this company, even though there aren’t a lot of employees working at any one given time.
20. Those employees also have the same opportunities as the customers they serve
Of course, the people who work for Refyne have the same opportunities that their customers have. They can also access their pay early. This gives them the same kind of freedom that others are enjoying across India.
