Advance

Advance (Advance.ph) was founded around 2018-2019 to bring earned-wage access — letting employees draw a portion of salary they’ve already earned before the official payday — to Filipino workers, with early institutional backing from Accion Venture Lab, a specialist financial-inclusion investor focused on emerging markets.

The company partners directly with employers, integrating with payroll and HR systems so staff can request an advance against wages already earned rather than turning to informal lenders or high-interest salary loans between pay cycles. It has since expanded the same earned-wage-access model into Vietnam.

In March 2023, Advance closed a $16 million pre-Series A round led by Do Ventures and Lendable, with participation from Kaya Founders, Foxmont Capital Partners, and Wavemaker Partners — funding aimed at growing its employer partnerships, which by then already included 200+ companies such as Sitel Philippines and Cebuana Lhuillier.

Many Filipino employees face cash-flow gaps between pay cycles and, lacking better options, turn to informal lenders or high-interest short-term salary loans to cover the gap — even though the money they need has often already been earned, just not yet paid out.

Employees at partner companies across the Philippines and Vietnam (including Sitel Philippines and Cebuana Lhuillier) who need access to already-earned wages before the next official payday, and the employers who offer Advance as a benefit.

Advance's product sits directly inside the employer-employee payroll relationship rather than functioning as a standalone lending app, letting it offer wage access without the high interest rates typical of informal salary loans. Early backing from Accion Venture Lab, a specialist financial-inclusion investor, and its expansion into Vietnam alongside the Philippines gave it a genuinely regional footprint earlier than most Philippine-founded fintechs.