69. SalaryFinance

Founder: Asesh Sarkar, Dan Cobley, and Daniel Shakhani
Founded: June 2015
Website: www.salaryfinance.com

Shocked at the amount of interest his son’s nanny was paying on her credit card, former financial services consultant Asesh Sarkar was inspired to find a way to help others in a similar position cut the cost of their own debt repayments.

Together with co-founders Dan Cobley (ex-MD of Google UK) and Daniel Shakhani, he created an employee benefit scheme that allowed anyone – even those with a poor credit rating – to consolidate their debt into a low-interest loan repaid via their payroll. SalaryFinance was born.

Free to use for employers, the service integrates with existing payroll processes and generates revenue from the interest repayments on the loan with a fixed rate of 7.9% APR. The company claims this is one third of the market average. In February this year, SalaryFinance announced a new partnership with employee benefits provider Benefex, the platform used by M&S, E.On, The AA and Centrica, making its service available to one million people across the country.

After raising $6.1m from Brightbridge Ventures in November last year, the fintech firm – which at present claims to have no direct competition – will embark on a campaign of expansion across the UK, with a goal of having 100 large UK companies signed in a year’s time.

Sarkar has an ultimate ambition for SalaryFinance to “become as mainstream as other employee benefits such as pensions and the cycle to work scheme”. And with consumer debt reaching alarming levels and clear benefits for employees, it’s a goal that may very well come to fruition…