Payme Japan

Payme Japan, officially established as Kabushiki-gaisha Payme in July 2017, operates in the Japanese financial technology sector with a focus on earned wage access. The company was co-founded by Michiteru Goto and Richiko Mori, who served as CEO and CTO, respectively. Goto's background includes experience at East Ventures, Mercari, CAMPFIRE, and DeNA, where he was involved in addressing user challenges and investment promotion. This experience, coupled with his personal frustration with traditional monthly pay cycles during his student years, inspired the creation of Payme. Mori brought deep technical expertise as a full-stack engineer who had launched multiple services at CAMPFIRE.

The company's core offering is "Payme," a service that allows employees of client companies to receive a portion of their earned salary before the official payday. This service is positioned as a corporate welfare benefit, aiming to improve employee retention and increase job applicant numbers for its clients, which are primarily in sectors like food and beverage, human resources, retail, and call centers. For the corporate client, the service is offered with no initial or operational costs. Revenue is presumably generated through fees charged to the employees who utilize the early payment feature. The system integrates with clients' attendance and salary systems to automatically calculate the available withdrawal amount for employees. Users can apply through a mobile app, and in some cases, receive funds 24/7.

Payme has secured significant funding to fuel its growth, including a 700 million yen raise in July 2019 from investors like Mixi, CyberAgent, and Incubate Fund. By September 2023, the company had introduced a new business line, "Sales Scrum AI," a sales support service utilizing generative AI, following a 400 million yen funding round from WiL. This diversification indicates a strategic expansion beyond its initial fintech focus into the broader sales technology market. The company has also developed other services, including "Payme Marutto DX" for business digital transformation and "Payme Sayo Daiko" for recruitment process outsourcing.

Keywords: earned wage access, salary advance, fintech Japan, HR tech, employee benefits, payroll services, financial wellness, B2B2C, Michiteru Goto, employee retention, recruitment solutions, early wage access, mobile payments, generative AI, sales tech, Sales Scrum AI, Payme Marutto DX, Payme Sayo Daiko, corporate welfare, on-demand pay