I'm excited to announce that Upfront Ventures is leading Clair's $23.2 million Series B, with participation from Thrive and other existing investors. Having led Clair's seed round, we're doubling down on our conviction in their mission to redefine payday by making earned wages instantly accessible. When we first met Nico (CEO & Co-founder) in 2020, we knew instantly that he stood out. The deep empathy that he has for Clair users and maniacal focus to continue to be able to do 1 thing (earned wage access) excellently continues to be evident in every conversation you have with him. Being an early stage founder means you can get pulled into many different directions, distractions are abundant and new product ideas keep coming up. However, even 5 years into building the company, his focus and determination have stayed steadfast - which is a big part of why we're excited to continue supporting Clair's mission to make a meaningful impact in this category.

The reality is stark: 78% of Americans live paycheck-to-paycheck, and 83% want to receive their earnings in real time. After medical insurance, on-demand access to pay is the most requested workforce benefit. Clair addresses this need through their bank-powered EWA solution that partners with Pathward to originate interest-free advances.

How Clair differentiates itself is through their seamless integration with existing payroll and workforce platforms. By embedding directly into tools workers already use daily, they've created a "3-click solution" that makes accessing earned wages straightforward and stress-free. Since our initial investment in April 2020, Clair has expanded to serve over 29,000 business locations across 29 different industries, with high-profile integrations including Gusto and TriNet.

In the early days when the team was first building the product, Nico and Alex (President & Co-Founder) always told me their North Star was to partner with the biggest employee management platforms like payroll providers and time and attendance software companies. These partnerships would allow Clair to reach a larger population (and have very little customer acquisition spend), without creating any further friction for the end user to get access to their wages. They recently announced a Gusto partnership, with Clair reporting that 43% of Gusto’s users taking their first advance within just 2 minutes of availability - another critical milestone for the team.

We're excited for what's ahead. Clair isn't just building another fintech product - they're creating financial infrastructure aimed at reshaping how American workers get paid. Their embedded approach delivers solutions through platforms people already use, improving adoption while creating a competitive moat through deep partnerships.

At Upfront we are focused on high conviction investments, Clair is an example of a long standing relationship we have supported from seed to Series B, and continue to have the same level of excitement we did when we invested in the team at Day 1.