Earned wage access [EWA] platforms, which provide on-demand payroll to bridge the gap between pay cheques, continue to attract investor interest and venture money in SE Asia even as the model is beginning to face questions around bad loan risks and sustainability.
Seen as an employee benefit or perk, the model surfaced in SE Asia around 2020 with the mushrooming of a host of startups that went on to quickly gather funding to meet the growing demand for their services.