Founder Craig J. Lewis is revamping his mission to empower the gig economy.

As AFROTECH™ previously reported, Lewis leads Gig Wage, a fintech platform aimed at improving payroll for 1099 employees. With his background in payroll sales at Payroll Plus Inc. from 2009 to 2010 and a two-year stint as a payroll technology consultant at CyberPay, Lewis has a deep understanding of the industry, as mentioned on his LinkedIn profile.

“I helped to sell ADP’s [the largest payroll company in the world] first cloud-based product called ADP Run, and that’s where it all started for me,” he told AFROTECH™ in a 2021 interview. “I’ve seen the impact that technology has on the payroll space. After reading an article about the global independent workforce, aka the gig economy, I realized that there wasn’t a payroll space for that group, meaning, people who do work for a company but the companies aren’t really designed or don’t have access to the technology to pay these type of people. These are your freelancers, contractors, 1099 employees.”

He added, “Gig Wage is a payroll company made for the gig economy that’s focused on the businesses first so that they can pay workers how they want to be paid, when they want to be paid, where they want to be paid, and still be competitive for talent.”

By 2022, Gig Wage had raised $13.2 million for its efforts. In 2024, the company received additional funding while undergoing changes. According to Dallas Innovates, the company contracted the fintech company Synapse to assist with credit and debit accounts. However, Synapse filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy, according to information shared by Evolve Bank & Trust, a partner of Synapse.

“While we too were affected by the crash and had to shut down for 90 days to rebuild the platform and return funds to customers, we’ve come back stronger than ever with a complete overhaul and with brand new banking partners for our new and existing customers like AT&T, Lyft, and Omni Interactions,” Lewis commented, per Dallas Innovates.

The company has now launched what they describe as ‘Gig Wage 2.0,’ which will allow independent contractors to gain access to tools such as:

  • contractor payments wallet
  • health and wellness benefits
  • free invoicing
  • onboarding support
  • background checks

The company mentioned that ‘Gig Wage 2.0’ includes the features of 1.0 but also empowers businesses to optimize operations and drive growth, while providing independent contractors with a full suite of tools that other payment platforms typically offer only to W-2 employees.

The latest features follow a $8.25 million raise from Discover, Motley Fool, and Chartline Capital Partners. Existing investors, such as Green Dot, Foundry Group, Continental Investors, and Revolution’s Rise of the Rest Seed Fund, also participated.

“We’re so excited for this new era at Gig Wage,” Lewis explained. “The past several months have been dreary for the fintech world with the Evolve Bank and Synapse crash, so we’re thrilled to bring some positive news to the finance industry.”