Jack Markwalter co-founder of VIVA Finance was a college freshman when he discovered that having a job in America doesn’t guarantee access to fair credit. During his first week at the University of Notre Dame in 2013, a tour guide introduced him to the Jubilee Initiative for Financial Inclusion (JIFFI), a nonprofit that offered affordable loans to South Bend, Indiana, residents who were forced to use payday lenders charging exorbitant annual interest rates.

Working one-on-one with these families who earned steady paychecks but lacked credit histories, Jack witnessed something that would later define his career. He realized that the American credit system was fundamentally broken for working people, leaving them at the mercy of loan sharks.

Seven years later, the lesson learned from those South Bend families metamorphosed into VIVA Finance, an Atlanta-based fintech that recently entered into a transformative partnership with Paychex after securing over $220 million in capital in the summer of 2025 by proving that employment history matters more than credit scores.

As 49 million Americans remain locked out of traditional banking despite holding full-time jobs, VIVA Finance’s $220 million raise, led by impact investor Community Investment Management, signals that institutional capital is finally betting on a different approach to creditworthiness.

The company has originated more than $250 million in payroll-deducted loans and served approximately 70,000 borrowers since launching in February 2020, demonstrating that employment-based lending isn’t just socially responsible, it’s profitable.

USTechTimes caught up with Jack and Hodges Markwalter, the brothers behind Viva Finance, to understand their ambitious plans for 2026. As the fintech startup positions itself to scale rapidly through a combination of bank partnerships, embedded finance integrations, and asset-backed funding, all while maintaining its self-imposed 36 percent APR cap.

Regulatory Compliance Without Speed Tradeoffs

As AI transparency rules tighten across the lending industry, Viva Finance has taken a proactive approach to compliance. The company built its underwriting model with explainability at its core, enabling the system not only to make credit decisions but also to quantify and explain the factors behind each decision.

“This capability enables VIVA Finance to comply with the FCRA and other relevant lending regulations,” the Markwalters explained. The brothers emphasized that accuracy, transparency, and compliance always come first, even as they optimize for speed.

“Our approach is that we want to be as fast as possible for our customers while remaining transparent to our customers and compliant with existing regulations,” they said.

To prevent the algorithmic bias and discrimination risks inherent in employment-based lending, Viva conducts rigorous fair lending and model validation audits for each version of its credit model. This process helps identify and prevent unwanted biases before they impact borrowers.

Preempting State Rate Cap Challenges

Colorado’s decision to cap out-of-state fintech lending at 36 percent APR sent ripples through the industry, but Viva Finance was already ahead of the curve. The company voluntarily capped all its loans at 36 percent APR, a strategic decision designed to future-proof its business model.

“This decision was made to ensure our pricing remains sustainable in the long term, even if other states follow Colorado’s footsteps,” the brothers said. The self-imposed limit protects Viva’s unit economics from regulatory uncertainty while maintaining competitive positioning in the market.

Viva Finance is popularizing employment-based lending through three parallel approaches: bank partnerships, embedded finance, and securitization. The company has established multiple banking relationships, including a notable collaboration with Thread Bank, and has recently launched integrations with major corporations such as Paychex to expand product availability.

On the funding side, Viva works with private debt funds to finance its loan originations, creating a capital structure that allows the company to scale to multiples of its current size without depending solely on venture capital.

The Economics of Employment-Based Lending

The Markwalters revealed that Viva Finance’s employment-based lending model delivers significantly lower operational costs compared to traditional lending products. Servicing loans through payroll deductions proves more efficient than conventional ACH transfers, allowing the company to manage more loans with less overhead.

“We are fortunate to have highly scalable marketing channels that allow us to reach millions of workers with very low overhead,” they noted. The company’s data partnerships enable seamless income and employment verification, enabling most applications to be processed with minimal human intervention.

This automation advantage directly translates into profitability. The brothers believe they’ve achieved the necessary level of profitability and cash efficiency to scale quickly without additional venture capital. However, they remain open to partnerships with funds that can add strategic value beyond capital.

2026 Outlook

With its infrastructure in place and profitability achieved, Viva Finance is positioning itself for aggressive expansion in 2026, capitalizing on rapidly growing demand for employment-based credit products. The timing is particularly opportune, as the global payroll-linked lending market reached $51.2 billion in 2024 and continues expanding as employers increasingly adopt financial wellness programs.

The Paychex partnership, announced in November 2025, represents a watershed moment for distribution scale. With access to Paychex’s network of half a million business clients and over 10 million employees, Viva Finance can reach millions of workers who fall between the cracks of traditional lending, too financially stretched for premium products from SoFi or Upstart, yet needing more substantial credit than earned wage advance platforms like Chime or DailyPay can provide.

“We’re chasing impact,” said Jack Markwalter. “This deal with Paychex puts our product in front of millions of hardworking Americans. That’s the kind of scale that changes lives and industries.”

The broader market context strongly favors Viva’s model. Employer-partnered earned wage products saw transaction volumes nearly double from 2021 to 2022, with the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau estimating more than 7 million workers accessed approximately $22 billion through these channels in 2022.

While Viva Finance’s longer-term installment loans differ from earned wage advances, the data demonstrates massive employer and employee appetite for payroll-integrated financial solutions.

Embedded lending will become increasingly mainstream in 2026, with platforms offering loans directly within the tools users already use.

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