Chime acquires employee rewards start-up Salt Labs
US neobank Chime has acquired employee rewards start-up Salt Labs to bolster its newly created enterprise division and “enable employers to empower their employees to build financial security”.
Chime acquires Salt Labs for undisclosed sum
The new division is to be led by Salt Labs’ CEO Jason Lee and stands to benefit from the addition of the start-up’s enterprise client relationships and flagship product, Salt.
Salt Labs says its proprietary offering has been designed to function in a similar way to a traditional savings account, “creating a valuable asset for hourly workers to own the long-term value of their work”. Every hour a user works is rewarded through a points-based system and accumulated points can then be exchanged for curated “products, experiences and offers…such as stock, or tickets to an event, for example”, according to the company’s website.
The service, along with the entire Salt Labs team, is to be merged into Chime Enterprise, which the neobank says will focus on “accelerating Chime’s growth through the employer channel, beyond Salt Labs’ flagship products”.
“Through this acquisition, we will aim to partner directly with employers to reach millions of consumers and introduce them to the Chime platform,” Mark Troughton, COO of Chime, further elaborates.
Troughton adds that the acquisition will also build upon Chime MyPay, a platform currently being developed by the fintech to provide earned wage access of up to $500 to US workers.
The fintech, which was most recently valued at $25 billion, has not disclosed the financial terms of the transaction.
