Atomic and Hydrogen Partner to Help Workers Tackle Financial Stress With a Holistic Platform for Personal Finance Applications and Wellness Benefits

September 14, 2022 at 09:03 AM EDT

Partnership stands to boost market competitiveness and attract customers and talent for employers, gig-economy platforms, and consumer-focused organizations with a seamless no-code developer experience

Atomic, the market-leading provider of payroll connectivity, is announcing today its partnership with Hydrogen, a fintech platform that enables businesses to quickly launch white label debit cards with no coding and one, all-inclusive platform. By partnering with Atomic, Hydrogen enables organizations to seamlessly integrate payroll connectivity with its platform, unlocking features for employers, employees, gig-economy workers, and payroll providers. For companies and organizations that work with the unbanked or underbanked, they can now offer consumers a wallet or card to deposit their payroll, with auxiliaries like cashback and rewards on card purchases an added bonus, a win for both workers and employers.

“The rise of EWAs prominence in recent years is a signal workers’ wages are not going as far as they used to,” noted Jordan Wright, Atomic CEO and co-founder. “We anticipate workers are going to demand financial health benefits that help them get ahead of bill payments and scenarios driving repeat usage of EWA between pay cycles. Our partnership with Hydrogen enables organizations to quickly and seamlessly launch applications to help workers tackle financial stress and for employers to retain and attract talent.”

“This partnership is a unique opportunity for organizations to quickly get custom debit card programs to market for workers,” said Evy Natan, Senior Partnerships Manager at Hydrogen. “In turn, these card programs create opportunities to monetize revenue from interchange fees—versus penalty or interest fees—that in time encourage recurring usage and loyal customers.”

The announcement comes at a precarious time in the American job market when wages are tightening and unemployment hovers near half a century lows at 3.7% in August, according to the Labor Departments. Workers are financially strained as the costs for household goods increase from inflationary pressures. Simultaneously, the rate of costs outpaces wage growth, driving workers to seek out alternatives to either meet bill due dates or incur fees. Workers are also utilizing employer-sponsored earned wage access (EWA) benefits and direct-to-consumer solutions to access earned but unpaid wages.

The Hydrogen-Atomic partnership yields numerous value propositions for Hydrogen and its clients. Gig economy companies can leverage Hydrogen’s Atomic widget to empower their 1099 workers access to pay with a great user experience to boot. Employers can offer automatic deposit switching and automated funding of Hydrogen cards, earning consumers rewards and cashback on purchases and yielding profits from interchange for employers. Meanwhile, consumer-focused organizations can re-channel earned profits from interchange fees back to community building and other needs.

For both companies, the partnership brings Atomic and Hydrogen further in their shared vision to close financial health gaps for all workers by powering the next generation of financial wellness benefits.

About Atomic

Atomic is the market leading provider of payroll connectivity, trusted by over 125 financial institutions, fintech firms and partners, including 12 of the largest fintech apps offering a digital-first neobank, alternative lending, crypto exchanges, and digital brokerages. Atomic's payroll integrations provide the infrastructure to connect consumers to their financial data, automate set-up and updating of direct deposits, digitize income and employment verifications, repay financial obligations from their paycheck, access earned but unpaid wages, and tap tax filing advantages.

Atomic simplifies complicated payroll integrations with a suite of API solutions that covers over 480 unique payroll connections, including incumbent payroll providers, bespoke enterprise solutions, modern HR tech providers, gig-economy platforms and government systems. Atomic's payroll APIs cover 75% of the U.S. workforce with a combined reach of 125 million workers.

Atomic was selected for a 2022 Fintech Breakthrough Award for Best Banking Transaction Solution, recognized as a Top Work Places 2022, and has raised $78.6 million from investors, including Mercato Partners, Core Innovation Capital, Portage, and Greylock. For more insights on the intersection of fintech and payroll, you can subscribe to Atomic's Intelligence newsletter.

About Hydrogen

Hydrogen is embedded finance simplified. We enable businesses to quickly launch white label debit cards with no coding and one, all-inclusive platform. No fintech experience is necessary. Launch new programs, earn new revenue, and get to market in weeks. Our newest Web3 offering is white labeled crypto debit cards that can be spent at millions of merchants globally. This new offering is branded as Chainswipe, and will help onboard the next 100 million crypto users, by making it easy and intuitive for them to spend crypto in their wallets.

Hydrogen has been honored as World-Changing Technology from Fast Company, FinTech Startup of the Year from KPMG Luxembourg, and BBVA Open Talent USA winner. Hydrogen is also a graduate of the Mastercard StartPath, MassChallenge FinTech, and Plug and Play FinTech accelerator programs. Hydrogen is committed to empowering organizations to develop financial products for customers in the US and around the globe. For more information, please visit https://www.hydrogenplatform.com and follow us on Twitter and Linkedin.