Clockout has raised $2 million to accelerate its mission of bringing earned wage access to the heart of community banking. The round was led by Cofounders Capital, which contributed $1 million and will take a board seat. Other investors include Porch Ventures, One Six One Ventures, Market Square Ventures, and Launch Tennessee.
“This fundraise gives us over two years of runway,” CEO and co-founder Juan Jurado-Blanco told Refresh Miami. The funds will be used to support initial customer deployments, attend key banking and fintech conferences, and make a few strategic hires – all while keeping a lean and capital-efficient approach.
“We aim to become profitable by early 2026,” Jurado-Blanco added.
Clockout’s product enables banks and credit unions to offer earned wage access through their own mobile apps. Users can tap into wages they’ve already earned, providing a low-cost alternative to payday loans and overdraft fees. It’s a concept that’s gained traction among neobanks, but is still largely unfamiliar territory for community financial institutions.
That’s where Clockout sees an opportunity. Since February, the startup has quadrupled its sales pipeline. Eight bank customers are expected to sign this year, with another six in late-stage conversations. “We have about 130 banks and credit unions in the pipeline right now, and that number keeps growing,” said Jurado-Blanco.
Much of that momentum is thanks to Clockout’s selection for the ICBA ThinkTECH Accelerator. Run by a committee of 30 bank CEOs, the program allows six fintechs per year to demo directly to more than 100 banks and credit unions. “It’s a commercially focused program where we present to 12 or 13 banks a week,” Jurado-Blanco said.
To support this growth, Clockout has already brought on a veteran head of growth and an additional engineer. While the team may add one or two more people this year, the majority of the capital will go toward sales, travel, and attending major industry events like Fintech Meetup, Money 20/20, and Finovate.
Anthony Tardugno, co-founder and COO, emphasized that Clockout’s pitch often begins with education. “Most of these banks have never heard of earned wage access,” he said. “We’re showing them how on-demand pay can drive core deposit growth.” As an example, he pointed to Chime’s recent rollout of a similar feature: “They had two million users on the waitlist, with one million signing up in the first 48 hours.”
The company’s long-term vision is to become the infrastructure layer for earned wage access in banking, much like Zelle did for peer-to-peer payments. “We want anyone who gets a paycheck to be able to access their earnings directly from their trusted bank app,” Jurado-Blanco said.
That includes partnerships with banking core providers, state banking associations, and, potentially, a major U.S. neobank. Clockout is already in exploratory conversations with one large platform the founders declined to name.
“We’re executing well, and this capital is just more oxygen to keep going,” Jurado-Blanco said. “The timing is right.”
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