Hi offers a new asset class based on time
By Robin Amlot
Hi is a new digital payroll system, created by David Brown, chief executive of parent company Hi55 Ventures. In partnership with IT services provider NTT Data, Hi is a way for creditworthy companies to gain access to working capital based on their payroll. Lenders will be able to see its value and lend against it without adding debt to the balance sheet of the business.
Hi creates a new asset class for working capital – Pay Asset Finance – which transforms how businesses view and verify employee time and pay. In turn, employees will also be able to gain the freedom to access their earned money weekly with the new system, and over time, instantly.
David Brown said: “Hi’s new category of trade finance, Pay Asset Finance, enables employers to release much-needed working capital from their payroll – a global first. Our aim is to make payday obsolete and simply become a settlement system to monies owed and due to the individual employee, making pay itself become the new form of secured credit.”
Brown is a serial FinTech entrepreneur and was co-founder and chief product officer of Previse and CEO of Oxygen Finance. He believes that Hi’s twin solutions of payroll funding and weekly pay will entice firms to sign on the dotted line as they grapple with the effects of the Covid-19 economic crisis on their finances – helping them to recover and grow.
He said: “I can’t remember a time when businesses needed fast, reliable access to cash more – Hi provides them with not only critical financial breathing space, but also, by creating a global standard for time, it generates significant cost and time savings for them.”
Hi allows investment grade companies to release working capital by externally financing pay and makes pay to employees more accurate, efficient and frequent. Through Hi, companies can defer their payroll for 30 days or more. Instead, it is funded externally, freeing up a firm’s working capital. Companies with good credit ratings would be able to gain the money at very low rates of interest. What’s more, it would not be construed as debt as it would not appear on a company’s balance sheet.
It also allows employees to see what they earn as they earn it. An app facilitates employee and employer collaboration and enables employer approval of an employee’s time, while its technology seamlessly integrates with a business’s existing payroll and timekeeping systems. It standardises time and reduces time/pay errors. Employees do not pay for Hi, all costs will be borne by the employer, it can be used as an employee benefit or employee retention scheme.
Brown added: “Time is worth a great deal as it is linked to people and payroll. The consumption of time is the creation of money – the commodity that drives global commerce. Businesses are crying out for a new way of doing this, especially during this tough economic time due to Covid-19.”
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