In a tight labor market, the best way to attract and retain talent is to care about employee well-being. These efforts have a boost as Mexico approaches full employment, but especially with the recognition that economic, physical, and mental health are interconnected.
“The main problem that needs to be solved in Mexico is the financial problem,” said Mexico-based entrepreneur Nima Pourshasb (center in photo above). His startup, Minu, not only helps Mexican employees provide more than 50 employee benefits, including telemedicine, but also offers paychecks so they don't have to stress about waiting for payday. I also have access to.
Pourshasb said Minu's platform has 1 million users, with about 2,000 employers of all sizes as customers. This helped Minu overcome declining interest from some generalist VCs in the US to invest in Mexican startups. The company closed a $30 million Series B round led by QED, with participation from new investors including Endeavor Catalyst and Next Billion Capital Partners.
“If you look at the investors that participated in this round, many of them are impact investors. […] I think what they're seeing is the impact that we're having in terms of reducing financial stress and in terms of changing behavior,” the Iranian CEO told TechCrunch, adding that the startup is helping people save and finance more money. He mentioned using gamification to encourage better hygiene. .
Image credit: Minu
Reducing financial stress was the starting point for Minu, which Pourchasub co-founded in 2019 with Spaniard Rafael Niel and Italian Paolo Rizzi. All three call Mexico home and are “obsessed with the issue of this country's lack of economic health,” Pourshasb said.
They chose to approach this problem with a B2B2C model for two reasons. For one, “people trust their employers,” Pourshasb said. And secondly, we like the fact that this is a win-win arrangement. If companies selfishly know that the healthier their employees are, the better it is for the company, their employees will continue to work. You'll be more productive. ”
Lower turnover is one of Minu's selling points, and this also includes regulatory compliance. In 2018, Mexico passed NOM-035, a law requiring employees to identify and prevent psychosocial risks in the workplace. Now that fines are being imposed, there is a “huge wave of companies trying to comply,” Pourshasb said.
To ensure it captures this growing demand, Minu itself is growing. The company aims to have 150 employees by the end of the year, according to the CEO. This includes expanding its sales and customer success presence throughout Mexico outside of Minu's headquarters in Mexico City and its technology hub in Mérida.
On the product side, the Series B will be geared towards new features and services, particularly around financial and physical health, but will also include HR tools such as surveys, which have been requested by customers, Pourchasve said. This is in addition to features Minu added after acquiring Plerk, which provided prepaid cards to workers.
While Minu is expanding its reach, it has not left its pay-on-demand roots behind, recently signing a deal with financial institution Citibanamex to integrate Minu's earned wages access service into the bank's retail app. It has become.
Access to paid wages and financial services is one segment where Minu has several competitors, including Spanish start-up Cobee, which was recently acquired by French group Pluxee for an undisclosed sum. There is also a wide range of competitors.
Minu also declined to disclose the valuation attached to the Series B. However, according to QED, which previously led Minu's seed round and participated in its Series A, this represents a “significant increase from the Series A valuation,” which was not disclosed. Either.
However, Pourshasb confirmed that the company has raised $47 million in equity to date, including $10 million in a bridge round in 2023 that became a Series B. That's true. Perhaps more importantly, Pourshasb said Minu is now “on track to achieve profitability.” By the end of the year.