How Fintechs Can Rewrite Independent Worker Payouts

The independent workforce is huge—but grossly underserved when it’s time to get paid. That’s creating an equally big opportunity for fintechs.

More than 60 million Americans now work independently—as freelancers, gig workers, consultants, and contractors. By 2028, they’re expected to make up the majority of the U.S. workforce. Independent workers no longer represent a niche market. They represent the future of work on a massive scale.

This shift has real implications for financial services, particularly for fintech companies rethinking how products are built, priced, and delivered. Runa research shows that independent workers are grossly underserved when it comes to their payouts and disbursements, leaving the door wide open for first movers and innovators to capture this customer segment.

Unlike traditional banking customers who interact with their financial institutions a few times a month to pay bills or check balances, independent workers are deeply transactional. They receive and move money frequently between platforms, clients, and accounts–potentially making payout requests from multiple platforms each week, transferring funds almost daily, and constantly weighing payout options.

Independent workers are particularly dependent on fast and reliable payouts, and make frequent decisions about their business relationships based on financial-service quality. Runa research shows that slow, unpredictable payouts are a top pain point among independent workers, and nearly three in four will quit or rethink their job over poor payout experiences.

Fortunately, fintechs are uniquely positioned to alleviate these common challenges via nimble, revenue-generating solutions.

Conditions Are Changing

Serving this segment at scale wasn’t feasible until recently. Indeed, real-time payment infrastructure has matured to the point that instant, high-frequency payouts are no longer technically difficult or cost-prohibitive—even across borders.

But despite these advances, many financial institutions remain anchored to systems optimized for longer payroll cycles and recurring billing—not for handling unpredictable, frequent, fragmented income flows. Platforms employing independent workers often need payout capabilities that fall outside what traditional providers offer.

There’s also a disconnect on the business side. Companies are looking for ways to keep independent contributors engaged and productive. Whether it’s a direct sales platform trying to retain global distributors or a survey company aiming for faster respondent incentives, better payment experiences are increasingly viewed as a competitive advantage, not a cost center.

This landscape is creating a sizeable opening.

The level and speed of activity independent workers expect from their payouts opens opportunities fintechs are primed to accommodate and generate revenue from. Here are some scenarios illustrating this point:

• Helping business partners become employers of choice. As organizations increasingly need better payout tools to deliver better experiences for independent workers, they are turning to fintechs. When fintechs enable those positive experiences, businesses are better positioned to attract and retain higher-quality talent, as workers that find a platform that offers flexible, fast, and reliable payouts are more likely to stick with it. Fintechs that enable businesses to keep and engage top talent economically will become valuable long-term partners. They can also use their own solutions to also become employers of choice–offering in-demand, tailored payout options to top tech talent that can help their businesses grow.
• Access to new revenue streams and cross-selling opportunities. Independent workers demonstrate a willingness to pay premium prices for superior payout experiences that enable prompt, consistent access to their funds–regularly choosing instant payouts despite higher fees. They value speed and reliability enough to pay for it, creating pricing power that some traditional financial services can’t achieve. Fintechs can also use rich behavioral data from these initial payout events as gateways to deeper financial engagement, fee-based services, and new sources of revenue that increase customer lifetime value. This could mean offering tools for tax optimization, expense tracking, cash-flow monitoring, or insurance that seamlessly syncs with payouts processes.
• Expanding network potential. Runa’s research shows that, in addition to popular payout methods like digital wallets and bank transfers, gift cards are also among independent workers’ top choices. Fintechs can connect with retailers to help their business partners offer branded gift cards as payout options to everyone’s benefit. Independent workers get paid how they want, businesses keep their employees happy, and merchants engage customers in unexpected ways. And of course, fintechs that facilitate these arrangements can take a cut from orchestrating the end-to-end transaction.
• First-mover advantage. Financial services tailored to the independent worker economy are still nascent, and many businesses rely on fragmented and outdated payout systems in need of modernization. Traditional banks are usually slower to adapt, and most existing platforms treat payouts as an afterthought. But fintechs are inherently nimble and can use it to their advantage—edging out incumbent solutions before the market becomes saturated by establishing status as go-to payout-solution providers.

These aren’t hypothetical scenarios. They’re already in market. And they work.

A Shift That Touches Everyone

Gig and freelance segments are already impacting financial services. As more people split their time between salaried jobs and side work, demand grows for financial tools that can handle both. And as businesses adjust to more dynamic labor models, their expectations for financial partners are evolving.

Fintechs can meet and exceed these expectations by adapting to support payout flexibility, real-time funds movement, and integration with sleek new platforms—not just legacy payroll systems. This also means understanding the end user well enough to build products that reflect their actual financial behavior, not just their classification as “1099” or “W2.”

The rails that move money today weren’t built for cross-border payments at a massive scale. Most fintechs understand that what works in the United States isn’t necessarily going to be the same overseas—but their clients often do not. Those that can help clients leverage and navigate tech-enabled universal payout options on a worldwide scale offer considerable added value.

The independent worker economy is already reshaping how money moves and how financial relationships are formed. That momentum isn’t slowing down. Every time an independent employee chooses one platform over another based on how they’re paid, it reinforces the need for more specialized, responsive financial services.

There’s a clear opportunity here for fintechs willing to adapt their models, build around new behaviors, and rethink what financial engagement looks like for a fast-growing segment of the workforce.

—Aron Alexander is chief executive and founder at Runa Network Ltd.