For about two years now, Simon Ward has been contributing his over 20 years of experience in the fintech and e-commerce industries to improve South African workers’ financial health. He gives them tools to reduce their debts and increase their savings.

 Floatpays is a money management app launched in 2020 by tech enthusiast Simon Ward (photo). With over 20 years of experience as an entrepreneur and business leader in the fintech and e-commerce industries, Simon Ward has always wanted to make a positive impact on the living conditions of local populations in South Africa. The mechanical engineer graduated from the University of Cape Town and obtained an operational management certificate from the University of Derby in England. He has been one of the chief technology officers of the photo-printing firm PhotoBox. He has also been a chief technology officer for Prodigy Finance, a financial institution that provides loans to international master's students. 

For the serial entrepreneur, Floatpays was born from his desire to lift Africans out of poverty by helping address the usual cause of that phenomenon: poor financial management. Financial education and budget planning are the essential skills needed to avoid unnecessary spending, he believes. To illustrate his point of view, he indicates that in his native country, South Africa, 75% of employed people spend their salaries before month-end, and more than 50% of them end up taking loans to survive.

His digital solution helps companies improve their employees’ financial health. Once deployed, it allows employees access to the accrued but yet to be paid salaries at any point of the payroll cycle. They can thus avoid taking loans and use the accrued earnings to cover their needs. Floatpays also offers employees flexible savings solutions by allowing them to change or stop their monthly contributions, or deposit funds into their savings accounts right from their phones. 

“I launched Floatpays in 2020, as a social impact-driven business on a mission to help move employees out of bad debt cycles and into a savings culture. We educate employees on financial matters, support them with financial planning, and remove the need for any employee to reach out to payday lenders/high-interest credit solutions when mid-pay cycle liquidity becomes a problem,” says the founder and CEO.  

In January 2022, Floatpays completed a US$4 million funding round to develop operations nationwide and initiate its African expansion.  

Melchior Koba