KUALA LUMPUR, 26 December 2023 - According to a recent survey, 55% of Malaysians live from paycheck to paycheck — so what happens if these Malaysians encounter a financial emergency before their salary comes in? Malaysian earned wage access facilitator HariGaji aims to solve that exact issue.

As the first operator of the earned wage access business model in the country, HariGaji has two main missions. For employees, it offers a more complete well-being solution that doesn’t just focus on financial well-being, and for employers, the company has expanded its services to offer complementary solutions, like payroll outsourcing, recruitment and staffing.

HariGaji uses the earned wage business model to enable workers to receive their wages before their regular payday, aiming to alleviate financial stress and improve employee wellbeing. Their service integrates with companies' payroll systems, offering a flexible and user-friendly solution for both employers and employees to manage and access earnings.

Notably, through HariGaji, companies are able to offer this service to employees at no cost as an additional perk for their staff. As a matter of fact, HariGaji is the only earned wage access provider that offers extensive customization of their earned wage access technology, where partners are able to operate the system under their own branding as their own solution.

Since its inception in 2020, this unique approach has proven to set HariGaji up for success, as proven by the company winning the “Best Digital Wellness Platform - Gold” award at Human Resources Online’s HR Vendors of the Year 2023 event. HariGaji also became one of the winners of the US ASEAN Science, Technology, and Innovation Cooperation (STIC)  programme, jointly organized by the US Department of State and Arizona State University in Jakarta. 

“We honestly attribute a lot of our growth to the support from the local startup ecosystem in Malaysia as well as our own hard work,” says co-founder Annamalai Thani. “Notably, when we participated in MRANTI’s Global Accelerator Programme (GAP), the company was being run by only two individuals out of our house! Now, our team has expanded into India, Singapore, and Indonesia, and we feel that this progress was really aided by the opportunities that programmes like the GAP provide.”

In fact, HariGaji cites partnerships as the cornerstone of their success. Their collaborations with the likes of CelcomDigi, RHB Bank, Kenny Hills, Manforce Group, and government organisations have allowed them to increase their reach and further add value to the HR ecosystem.

At its foundation, HariGaji’s progress and the impact created to date highlights the company’s commitment to enhancing the financial wellness of employees. HariGaji sees its approach to payroll and earned wage access as not just a service, but a crucial tool for improving employees' lives. Ultimately, the company aims to achieve further growth by bringing further innovation to their services in the HR space.

This article is provided by Elliot & Co.

The views expressed here are those of the author/contributor and do not necessarily represent the views of Malaysiakini.