Employers can help their employees access payday funds early thanks to a Black-owned fintech company in Memphis.
Express Wages allows employees to access their wages to cover expenses before disbursement.
The fintech company, headed by CEO and founder Alfred Milan, is the first Black-owned business in the earned wage access (EWA) field.
Milan spoke with the Flyer about Express Wages, breaking into fintech as a Black-owned brand, and more. — Kailynn Johnson
Memphis Flyer: Tell us about yourself.
Alfred Milan: I am the founder and CEO of Express Wages. I used to be a CEO of a healthcare company here in Memphis for about five years, had about 200 employees, and ended up selling that company back in January, and that was the spark of Express Wages.
One of my employees simply asked me about having access to their funds every day, about two years ago, and that sparked the innovative side of me.
There were no African-American companies in this space at all, so we’re the first in the United States, and we’re excited about that.
How did you pivot from healthcare to finance and tech?
It was pretty simple because I knew that with all the employees I had, access to capital was an issue. The stats show that 79 percent of Americans are [living] paycheck-to-paycheck.
We knew it was an issue — it still is an issue right now. I just kept saying there has to be a better way to do this where people have access to their own money but also value-added services as well.
You mentioned that you’re the first African-American business to do this. What does it mean to be an innovator not only in the national space but Memphis as well?
Being the first is good, but it’s really sad in the same sense. It’s 2025; why am I the first? So it’s good in a sense, but we’re still making progress. The bottom line is to not just be the first, but be a great company — to be a trailblazer for other companies to come behind us. I don’t want to be the only one. I’m hoping somebody else will innovate and create something better than what we have. That’s what the goal is — to create a great company, and that’s what we’re trying to do.
Were there any barriers that you faced that maybe showed you why you were the first and why it may be harder for African Americans to break out in tech and entrepreneurism?
It’s a very difficult space and the reason why is because of the lack of Black and brown people in the space. The stats show that less than 1 percent of Black fintech companies get funded. So why would someone get into something when they know they’re not going to be funded?
We have a phenomenal team of people who’ve done a great job. We have great advisors. We’re in the process of having something special, but it was a lot of hard work. It wasn’t given to us. We pitched to a lot of people to get funds. It was all nos, even though we knew we had something that was great. Even though other companies had pooled out the space and had billion dollar evaluations, they just wouldn’t give us access to capital.