Advanto isn't slowing down. During the Payout Anytime journey to the standard, Advanto has already crossed the line twice. After a successful expansion into Slovakia, the company is entering the Polish market. By buying out the clients of a similar service provider there, it becomes the largest provider of access to earned money in Central and Eastern Europe.
Advanto has been changing the rhythm of wage payments for almost four years. Thanks to the connection to payroll and attendance systems, over 70,000 employees in the Czech and Slovak Republics can send part of their wages directly to their bank account at any time. And all this with a few clicks in a mobile or web app. Earned wage access is an ethical solution to unexpected expenses and reduces financial stress for employees. According to Ewa Marczuk, Advanta's product director on the Polish market, "it is a benefit that gives people a foothold in these times of high inflation and at the same time, increasingly demanded flexibility."
Symmetrical has been providing similar services in Poland since 2019. During this time, it has become one of the most important players in the market with dozens of clients and thousands of employees. "Like many technology companies in recent months, Symmetrical decided to focus its attention on the development of a single product, which is a payroll system, a complicated product in itself. They decided to leave the earned wage access platform, which inevitably also carries fintech elements such as regulation, capital and payment infrastructure, to us because it's a business and technology that we at Advanta are very good at," explains Martin Fortelny, CEO and co-founder of Advanta.
Largest earned wage access provider in the CEE region
In the coming years, Advanto intends to invest tens of millions in development in Poland. "Poland experienced a long era of not very regulated and expensive non-bank lending. Millions of people got into financial difficulties because of this. We want to give Polish employees, through their employers, an ethical and inexpensive way of dealing with unexpected expenses," says Fortelny.
Advanta's expansion was made possible by the buyout of Symmetrical's clients, which was made possible primarily by the August investment of former PPF shareholders Jean-Pascal Duvieusart and Ladislav Bartoníček.
The product is managed on the Polish market by Ewa Marczuk, who previously worked at Symmetrical. "Earned wage access is the perfect tool for employers who care about the financial stability of their employees. I am delighted that Advanto is available on the Polish market and look forward to making it a standard," said Marczuk.
Advanta's follow-up plans
Advanto doesn't just stop at the Polish border. "Even though Poland is four times the size of the Czech Republic, we still plan to enter Germany and we are also looking at Romania. We want to become the largest payout provider ever in continental Europe," Fortelny adds.
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