All good things come in three they say. Does it apply to Deel’s partnership with banking-as-a-service providers as well?
Deel provides a “global people’s platform” with various HR software solutions. The main product is an international employment solution, where companies can hire and employ staff around the globe without the need to found local subsidiaries. This is covered by Deel who becomes the employer of record. Additionally, companies can use the Deel platform also for their collaborations with freelancers and contractors. The startup was founded in 2019 and was frequently covered as one of the fastest growing companies.
With the new Deel Card, contractors can now instantly access earnings and shop worldwide with a physical and a virtual Deel Card (Deel Card announcement). The card allows users to hold funds in USD, bypassing traditional bank delays, and ensuring secure transactions across borders. Over 6,400 contractors have already used the Deel Card, making it their preferred choice for managing finances on the go.
The Deel Card was launched in collaboration with Airwallex, a provider that started with direct-to-business payment accounts and FX services. But in the following years, the company has started their banking-as-a-service and embedded finance offering.
What’s interesting about this announcement is that Deel announced just a few weeks ago that it invested in embedded finance provider Alviere (Deel investment in Alviere). In the investment announcement, it also stated that it already integrated Alviere for a payroll, account and card product offering and plans to grow this partnership. The product offering of the infrastructure providers Alviere and Airwallex is very broad and they definitely do not offer the same products in all markets. Airwallex is likely a suitable partner for the Deel Card as it has licences around the world (Airwallex website) and Alviere has shut down its European expansion efforts last year.
At my last employer, I also used Deel in late 2020 and early 2021, and I remember before switching to another provider that it started to test a card for contractors in collaboration with Nium. Deel still seems to be using Nium for payment related services but the card likely never made it out of a test phase, since I cannot find any content on the web.
It is no surprise that a company like Deel collaborates with so many infrastructure providers. While not being a pure fintech, payment, payroll, accounts and card products are very close to their main offering. Additionally, by definition, contractors and employees are spread around the globe, making it very hard to find one infrastructure provider to cover all needs. Nevertheless, it will be interesting to follow how Deel’s partnership with Airwallex and Alviere continues and I wonder what the main motivation for the investment in Alviere was.
