About PayActiv
PayActiv is the best way for employees to get financial relief between paychecks, a service needed by two-thirds of the workforce. We give businesses the tools essential to ease the financial stress of their employees and build a higher performing workforce.
Our Story
PayActiv was founded to level the playing field for the millions of lower-income hourly workers being exploited and monetized for their 'between paychecks' cashflow timing issues. Rather than dwell over wage stagnation and tax structures, we at PayActiv set out to do what we knew best—solve this real-world problem with imagination and innovation.
Hence, our vision is simple—bring financial security, dignity, and savings to the millions experiencing financial stress. We believe that building a financial technology business requires more than great technology and amazing design. It requires a profitable yet socially-responsible business model and a deep commitment to improving the lives of our users.
The term 'financial wellness'—or the concept of real-time access to earned income—wasn’t known, popular, or even a part of the FinTech industry when PayActiv embarked on this journey. Despite this fact, we knew we had a concept which could revolutionize the historical delay in the timing of pay, offer employees true financial wellness, and simultaneously, improve retention, recruitment, and engagement for businesses in all industries.
With this, we set on our mission to create a holistic financial wellness platform which enables employers to provide their workers instant relief from their between-paychecks financial headaches. We’re elated to say, our technology empowers companies globally to help their employees be less stressed and lead more productive lives.
We’ve even received a few awards along the way: Best Fintech Solution from Finovate and Best HR Product of 2016 from HR Executive. To date, we’ve received $17.2M in funding.
We’re FinTech for ordinary people.
Team
Safwan Shah
Safwan Shah, Founder & CEO
As PayActiv’s founding CEO, Safwan is inspired every day by the transformative impact that PayActiv can bring to the lives of millions of people living paycheck to paycheck. An engineer by training, payments expert by experience and entrepreneur by accident, Safwan’s last job was at TSYS after the acquisition of Infonox, a payments company he founded and bootstrapped. His previous stints include being a rocket scientist at a NASA Center where a number of his experiments were part of the space program. Besides science and entrepreneurship, Safwan has also taught at Haas School of Business, UC Berkeley and Baskin School of Engineering at UC Santa Cruz. Safwan is a graduate of the distinguished Stanford Executive Program (SEP’09) and has an MS/PhD from UC Boulder.
Safwan Shah
Founder and CEO
Sohail Aslam
Sohail Aslam, Co-founder and CTO
Sohail has developed numerous breakthrough products including the first biometric ATM and the world's fastest medical image delivery system. Today crafting disruptive technology that enables society to own what they have earned just in time is his pride and joy. His work doesn't stop at PayActiv as he keeps his mental energy focused on problem solving while running after his three children over the weekend or running on hiking trails around the bay area.
Sohail Aslam
Co-Founder and CTO
Ijaz Anwar
Ijaz Anwar, Co-founder and COO
Ijaz has a knowledge base built on years of experience not only as a CPA, but also as an executive in the payments, operations, and strategic business development. Through it all, Ijaz has always possessed the spirit of an innovator and entrepreneur. He's committed to finding ways to impact the lives of millions of financially constrained people by giving them real-time access to their earned income. When Ijaz is not relentlessly pursuing his calling, he is trying to outscore and outwit his two sets of twins and dreaming of the day when he'll reunite with either his golf clubs or his squash racquet.
Ijaz Anwar
Co-Founder and COO
Sabina Bhatia
Sabina Bhatia, VP Strategic Alliances
A debt analyst by profession, Sabina experienced the high level of financial stress among hardworking people and society after the 2008 crisis. PayActiv has given her the avenue to make a positive impact in the lives of all working people irrespective of their age, gender or income level. She won't stop thinking about innovation and change for the financially stressed when you find her at a crossfit box or exploring a new restaurant in the bay area or hiking with her four-legged friend.
Sabina Bhatia
VP Strategic Alliances
Shehzad Zaman
Director, Information Security
Aatif Malik
Sr. Software Architect
Mitch Oshima
Product Manager
Brenda Chiquito
Treasury Analyst
Faraz Shah
Sr. Technical Lead
Jay Huston
Client Engagement Manager
Salim Afzal
Operations Systems Manager
Trevor Pardula
Partner Success Manager
Board and Advisors
Kabir Misra
Director
David Carlick
Director
Ajit Medhekar
Director
John Hawkins
Director
Amer Akhtar
Advisor
Baba Shiv
Advisor
Sanjiv Das
Advisor
JeAnna Abbott
Advisor
Don Peppers
Advisor
Investors
Launched with a seed investment from an affiliate of SoftBank Capital and founders, PayActiv investors include visionary leaders from Silicon Valley and the financial services sector. Read more