system and the need for American workers to have access to their money. At DailyPay, we built a financial technology platform that reimagines the way money moves and works for everyone. Employees are able to track and access their earned pay and achieve financial wellness for themselves and their families. Today, DailyPay provides tailored solutions to hundreds of leading companies and has helped free millions of employees from predatory financial products. What crucial advice would you give to an aspiring CEO looking to start out in the financial services sector? Pay close attention to your data and metrics. It is a simple rule that gets easily overlooked. No matter how well thought out an idea is, if your data cannot support it, you need to scratch it. I have seen many young CEOs who are driven by passion but neglect the numbers and statistics. It is a costly mistake that can have rippling effects, impacting your employees all the way to your business’s reputation. Do you foresee any significant new trends coming to fintech in 2021/22? With the post pandemic world transforming the workplace and businesses struggling to rehire workers, we can expect more companies seeking and opting in for an on-demand pay solution. With a growing demand for a daily pay platform, an influx of new providers will likely appear even in the next year or so. When DailyPay was first founded, there was only one other player in the market. Now, there are over 40 and counting. With the acceleration of digitisation in the workforce, employers and employees will heavily rely on on-demand payment technologies, opening new avenues for technological expansion. In addition to our current relations with employers and employees, we expect to broaden our reach and form relations with vendors and merchants. Once on-demand pay becomes mainstream, individuals will want to use it more regularly, whether it is directly paying for items via the app or in other ways. At DailyPay, we are ready to accommodate those transactions and facilitate financial fluidity to benefit everyone. Are you currently working on any major projects? I co-founded The Alicia and Jason Lee Foundation with my wife, Alicia, in 2020. Over the past two years, we have actively supported a wide range of philanthropic endeavours relating to criminal justice reform, financial literacy, and community initiatives. Can you tell us anything about your goals for DailyPay for the next 12 months? We just announced that we have secured $500 million of capital – $175 million of equity from our Series D fundraising round and $325 million of debt. We intend to invest our newly raised capital in new product and market opportunities for our industry-leading technology platform, in addition to extending our market leadership position in ondemand pay among the largest employers in the world. The initial application of our first-ofits-kind technology platform was to redefine how money moves between employers and their employees. We are now expanding our platform to change the relationship between merchants and their shoppers, as well as financial institutions and their customers. NEW YORK
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