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Out of the 7.3K+ community of FinTech startups that we follow on MEDICI, FinTech’s global knowledge network, close to 19% are payments startups. A highly fragmented segment of payment solutions creates obstacles for mass adoption of any particular service unless we talk about well-established, known leaders.

About 1.3K+ payments startups around the world offer all kinds of solutions for anything related to payments — P2P,bill payments, POS, payment gateways, etc. While the vast majority of startups are at the very beginning of their journey, dealing with massive uncertainty and tightening competition, some power players were able to find their prominent place in the whole ecosystem.

Hyperwallet is one of those interesting companies that has been focusing on the gig economy and gig workers — people who chose to efficiently utilize every asset in their possession. Gig workers have their own obstacles to overcome when it comes to financial services, and this time, we are speaking with the company that took a comprehensive approach to serving its target audience. Simran Singh, the Director of Business Development and Strategy at Hyperwallet, answered our questions on the gig economy as well as shared Hyperwallet’s vision on the present and future of payments.

Simran has more than five years of experience in the on-demand economy and graduated as a Palmer Scholar from the Wharton School of Business. He also holds an undergraduate degree in Computer Science and Mathematics from the Indian Institute of Technology, Delhi.

Find out more here.

Elena Mesropyan: Could you tell us about the gig economy and gig workers — who they are, what services they supply to this economy, and what percent of their overall income the gigs represent?

Simran Singh: The key premise of the gig economy is to increase utilization of different assets: the car parked in your garage, the vacation home that you own, and — most importantly — your time. Time is an asset available to everyone, from people with full-time skilled jobs to the unemployed. In the past, the popular perception of contract workers has been that they’re unskilled workers who have struggled to get full-time jobs and are turning to part-time work to make ends meet. Obviously, the freelancer identity is more complex than that, and it’s constantly evolving.

Fueled by the rise of marketplaces and on-demand services in the gig economy, we’re now seeing an educated, middle-aged population turn to gig work to supplement their full-time income or replace their nine-to-five jobs. They’re drawn by the flexibility that these gigs offer.

Gig work can include everything from driving for Uber or freelancing on Upwork to managing a rental on HomeAway or delivering for GrubHub. A study conducted by Hyperwallet earlier this year found that 47% of gig workers receive more than 40% of their income from gig economy jobs. There is a massive shift happening with how people earn, and we expect to see this percentage rise as more workers turn to the gig economy to supplement or replace their current income. We’re calling this trend the “Earning Revolution.”

Elena Mesropyan: What are the hallmark complexities faced by gig workers, and how does Hyperwallet address those complexities?

Simran Singh: The change in how we earn has given gig workers the flexibility to pursue work only when they choose. But while gig workers have more freedom than their nine-to-five counterparts, it takes longer for freelancers to receive those earnings. Our Payday in America study found that 28% of 1099 workers wait three to four business days to receive their payment, while 15% wait more than a week. We also discovered that 81% would do more gig work if they were paid faster. So, while marketplaces make it incredibly easy to earn on their platform, there’s still a lot of friction when it comes to actually receiving those earnings in a timely fashion.

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