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Hastee

“Can an EWA-first employee financial-wellbeing platform become the default money-management layer inside enterprise payroll (now via Zellis)?”

Founded2017
HQBristol, United Kingdom
FoundersJames Herbert
Total raised~$270M (equity + debt)
Latest roundVenture - Series Unknown, Jan 2021
IndustryFintech / Earned Wage Access
The story

Hastee launched in 2017 as a UK earned-wage-access pioneer, funding advances directly against payroll receivables via a bespoke £200M debt facility Umbra Capital arranged rather than a bank sponsor. The company progressively broadened into a full financial-wellbeing platform (Hastee Earn, Learn, Grow) covering savings, financial education, discounts and an AI Financial Assistant, distributed through T&A/WFM/payroll integrations rather than a consumer neobank stack. In August 2025 Zellis Group acquired Hastee, folding it into Zellis's HR & payroll suite and adding Hastee Benefits Ltd, Hastee Technologies HR Ltd and Hastee Europe SL as sub-processors of the Zellis financial-wellbeing product line.

Last 12 months
2025-08
2026-01
Product timeline
2017
Founded in London as an on-demand wages (EWA) app.· banking
2018
Raised $5.7M seed; selected for UK DIT Fintech Trade Mission to San Francisco.· banking
2019
Secured ~$270M in equity + debt (Umbra Capital-led £200M dedicated Hastee debt fund) to finance EWA advances.· lending
2020
Acquired Typson.· acquisition
2023
Co-founded the world's first EWA Code of Practice with the UK Money & Pensions Service, CIPP and 6 other EWA providers.· banking
2025
Acquired by Zellis Group to enhance HR & payroll offerings (Aug 2025 sub-processor list update reflects Hastee integration).· acquisition
Acquisitions
Typson2020
Small acquisition disclosed on Crunchbase; details limited.
The stack
5 layers disclosed in Hastee’s embedded-finance stack
Banking / BaaS
Unit
Card network
in the full report
Lending
in the full report
Payroll
in the full report
Insurance
in the full report
Accounting gap: minor
4 more providers across 4 layers, with confidence-scored evidence and source URLs, are in the Embedded Finance Index report.