Pinwheel

Pinwheel offers an API-based infrastructure platform for financial institutions and FinTechs to access payroll related data to enhance loan underwriting, to offer innovative lending products (such as earned wage access [EWA] and paycheck-linked loans). Pinwheel uses information on employment, income (including hourly clock-ins and salaries), and paystubs to streamline income and employment verification. Pinwheel also lets users update direct deposits through the platform.

Pinwheel obtains the data through connections with over 1,400 traditional and non-traditional platforms (as of January 2022), which it claims can access around 80% of people receiving paychecks in the US (including gig and creator economy workers). In January 2022, Pinwheel claimed that its platform executes over 4.6 million processes per month and that its annual recurring revenue (ARR) reportedly rose 177x in 2021.

Key customers and partnerships

The company expanded its platform offering by partnering with data aggregation and account connectivity platform MX in September 2021. As of January 2022, Pinwheel’s users included Block (formerly known as Square), Varo, Lendly, and Daylight.

Funding and financials

Pinwheel raised USD 50 million in Series B funding in January 2022, at a USD 500 million valuation, to invest in expanding its workforce and expanding into new business verticals (such as tax preparation).