Case study
Onsi: Supporting flexible workers with faster access to pay and benefits
How Adyen helped the benefits platform go live with accelerated payouts to support the financial wellbeing of workers.
A third of UK workers live paycheck to paycheck, without any spare cash for emergencies. That can mean a reliance on loans and credit cards when unexpected expenses appear. Created to tackle these problems, Onsi’s vision is a ‘world of work where everyone wins’.
The Onsi platform enables businesses like parcel delivery company, Evri and ride-hailing company Addison Lee, to reward their workers. Onsi started by offering insurance for self-employed workers, providing the protection usually covered by permanent contracts, such as accident and sickness cover. Since then, it has evolved into a platform for workers to also gain access to discounts and withdraw their pay early, once they’ve completed a shift.
Onsi is growing fast. With over 900,000 users across 36 countries, it’s closing in on its mission to benefit one million workers’ lives by 2025. Supporting workers across multiple markets with fast access to pay and benefits needs the right technology and expertise.
Here’s how Adyen is helping Onsi simplify its expansion and roll out new financial products, like their On-demand Pay product, to benefit even more workers.
The challenge: Delivering instant pay and benefits at scale
Onsi wanted to create an easy way for businesses to give their workers access to pay and benefits. It needed a solution that could scale fast while ensuring consistent service and local compliance.
“One of our challenges is how we give our users the products they want,” said Phil Limmer, Financial Product Lead at Onsi. “We want to ensure that we are giving workers the products that directly meet their needs. Discussing Onsi’s commercial strategy he continued, “We see lots of opportunities to continue our growth so we can help even more workers reach their financial goals.”
The solution: A partnership to roll out accelerated pay
Instant payouts
Onsi also needed support for its instant payout solution, On-demand pay. Adyen’s banking infrastructure makes it possible for Onsi to pay out to workers in real-time 24/7 across the UK. Payouts can be made directly to a worker’s bank account. “The ability to do third-party payouts has become vitally important,” said Phil. “We see our growth being massive because we can offer expedited pay to reward workers.”
Additional capabilities
“With Adyen being an expert in financial services, and having a wider product capabilities, makes them an exciting partner for us to have the ability to grow in the future,” continued Phil. Another Adyen innovation, card issuing is a scalable way for workers across different markets to access benefits through white-labeled physical or virtual cards.
After speaking to several providers, Phil decided Adyen was the right partner. “No other vendor could offer the speed Adyen was promising.”
“The process has been great,” said Phil. The account management team has helped us get through barriers, ensuring we end up with the product we want. We are excited to continue our partnership with Adyen as we enter new markets, onboard new businesses, and give more people access to Onsi products.”
Expertise
Rolling out new financial products can be complicated. “Adyen’s expertise has been invaluable,” said Phil. “Our technical team had the support of Adyen’s implementation team and we had a constant feedback loop regarding things that were coming up or how to build our next big feature. Adyen was crucial in assisting our speedy development and steep learning curve.”
Compliance is another big hurdle when working across several regions. Onsi was able to lean on Adyen’s expertise to navigate different regulations. “We’ve worked with the Adyen compliance and wider product teams to launch fast payouts,” explained Phil. “We now have a great product suite for our customers.”
The result: Happy customers, new revenue streams, and growth potential
High user uptake
Perhaps the most important success metric for Onsi was how well the solution was received by workers. “Usage is currently 35-40%,” said Phil. “That's a really high engagement rate and shows they value the product.”
Powerful insights
Data insights from Adyen are crucial to demonstrating the value of Onsi’s product to its partners. “Adyen’s data can be packaged up and shared with our partners so they can see how their people have adopted the new benefit. The fact that we can see where workers are spending and what they’re interested in is incredibly powerful,” said Phil.
New revenue streams
By diversifying into products, Onsi are opening up a new source of revenue and signs are promising: “The scope for these products to become a new revenue stream is huge,” he said. “The whole function is on track to grow a lot in 2025 and make up a significant portion of our overall revenue.”
New growth potential
The financial infrastructure supported by Adyen will act as a springboard for Onsi into new growth opportunities. "With Adyen’s financial platform we have been able to offer another level of financial opportunity for flexible workers with instant payouts."
The fact that Adyen has an established presence in key markets worldwide sets Onsi up for further expansion. “It’s fantastic to work with a partner that’s already set up across both cards and payouts in our core markets. We will be able to scale easily and support the financial wellbeing of millions of workers,” Phil concluded.
