The Start Up Loans Company Start-up of the Year 2018

Start-up name: Salary Finance
Founders: Asesh Sarkar
Started in: July 2015
Based in: London
Business description: Financial wellbeing platform for employees

It’s a terrible state of affairs when a CEO on a six-figure salary can get a loan at 3-4% per annum, whilst their minimum-wage worker could be paying 1,000% on a payday loan.

Founded by Asesh Sarkar, Salary Finance is the business challenging this broken model by helping employees save regularly, borrow responsibly and learn better habits. It does this by partnering with progressive employers to replace their debts with a low interest loan paid off through payroll.

This ensures employees don’t have to worry about making regular deposits themselves. Money is lent at lower rates than those available on the high street and loans are limited to 20% of an employee’s salary. It claims that this allows them to pay off their debts six to 12 months sooner and save an average £600 in interest costs.

Salary Finance goes beyond that though. It also thinks that it has a responsibility to build financial understanding and knowledge, and improve financial literacy to inculcate good long-term habits. This takes the form of quick tips, original articles, detailed guides, box set video series and interactive tools on budgeting, saving and managing debt.

So why did our judges decide to name Salary Finance as The Start Up Loans Company Start-up of the Year? Combining a truly innovative idea with a vital social mission, the business is already on track to help one million employees by the end of year.

With so many of us suffering under the burden of debt for so much of our lives, anything that can help alleviate that burden is absolutely welcome. Salary Finance estimates that it can save UK employees alone £4bn in interest payments annually. Now, after raising a £55m funding round, it’s already expanding across the US and has an exclusive distribution partnership with United Way(the largest non-profit globally), reaching 100,000 employers and 50 million employees…