Salaryo Helps Freelancers Rent Their Coworking Space

FinTech offers are often designed to be flexible to meet needs expressed by entrepreneurs, SMEs and start-ups. Salaryo built their model with this approach in mind but to a specific end: help entrepreneurs pay on credit for their deposit in a coworking space.

Salaryo was launched in 2017 and is now supported by the FinTech accelerator Techstars. This start-up is positioned as a financial services provider for other start-ups and freelancers. More precisely, Salaryo proposes flexible credit lines enabling them to pay the deposit for their coworking space.

Salaryo’s offer charges a 10 dollars/month flat rate for each 1,000 dollars they lend. They also allow their members to apply for flexible loans so they can afford to rent a coworking space: initial deposit and/or their rent for the first three months. Freelancers can subscribe online using a dedicated form. The scoring process relies on their existing credit history if they have one, as well as on social and work-related data.

Salaryo is not just aiming for a niche market, they also bet on the expanding start-up market and growing number of freelancers in the US. For instance, according to a study by Upwork and Freelancers Union over 40% of the US workforce should be working independently by 2020.

Comments – Entrepreneurs and start-ups: Prime targets for financial services companies

Despite what they say, Salaryo is in fact aiming for a niche market; and a particularly promising one. Renting a coworking space in larger US towns can be very expensive, especially when starting out. Renting a desk in downtown New York can cost more than 500 dollars per months, with initial deposits ranging from 750 to 1,000 dollars. For a start-up with several people, these charges can amount to 10,000 or 15,000 dollars. Just like most start-up focusing on the credit market, Salaryo’s model is based on an alternative scoring dedicated to their specific targets. Also, they built their offer as they were founding their start-up too, in a coworking space in Israel. They can then claim they relate to their target’s needs, since they have had to face similar issues.

Financial services for freelancers are now inspiring several offers. Dinghy, for instance focuses on the insurance market, and Qonto specialises in providing them with day-to-day banking services. And this market also attracted long-standing banking groups: Société Générale, for instance, started considering this segment in 2016 and even introduced a banking offer for co-workers in 2017.