Akshay Rawat’s Innovative Payment Solutions for the Gig Economy

Akshay Rawat stands at the intersection of technological prowess and entrepreneurial spirit. With more than 20 years of experience, Akshay has honed his expertise in building scalable systems tailored to address the dynamic payment needs of gig economies. As the engineering lead at Checkr Pay, he focuses on creating sophisticated payment platforms that cater to the unique requirements of gig workers and platform operators. His journey is marked by a commitment to simplicity, people over processes, and actionable feedback loops – principles that have significantly shaped his approach to technology and product development.

Akshay's professional background is as rich as it is varied. Having worked at leading technology firms like ThoughtWorks and being the first hire at Clerky, he has played instrumental roles in building products from the ground up. He has also co-founded companies such as Floh.in and Activesphere. His tenure at his current employment showcases his versatility in both engineering and product management. Currently, he is at the forefront of devising financial products designed specifically for gig economies, leveraging advanced techniques such as event-driven architectures, distributed databases, and machine learning for fraud analysis.

Tackling Initial Challenges in Gig Payment Platforms

Navigating the complex challenges of the gig economy, Akshay underscores the need for adaptable payment platforms to meet diverse worker preferences. "Gig workers today demand various payment methods to receive their earnings," Akshay points out, emphasizing the necessity for platforms to support options from direct deposits to real-time payments and social apps like Venmo or Cash App. He highlights, "Some earners prefer free transfers due to cost savings, while others are willing to pay a small fee for the convenience of instant transfers," illustrating the importance of offering a broad range of choices to satisfy worker expectations and retain talent.

Additionally, the high volume of low-value transactions typical in the gig economy poses operational challenges. Akshay stresses, "Building product features that address common support issues, such as payment fraud and worker identity fraud, upfront can significantly reduce this burden, helping support teams operate efficiently at scale." He also highlights the crucial need for regulatory compliance, noting that gig companies must navigate complex payment and labor regulations, underscoring the importance of a payment platform that adapts to regulatory changes without burdening the companies with legal complexities. "Our strategic approach not only enhances operational efficiency but also improves the overall user experience by ensuring that verified workers (verified for identity, qualifications, etc.) enable gig services consumers to better trust the gig platform," he explains.

Building Flexible Payment Methods through Technological Innovation

Creating a robust technological infrastructure is essential for managing the various payment methods required by gig workers. Akshay emphasizes the importance of architecture inspired by layered principles and microservices. "Every payment method is based on different technologies and standards," he notes, explaining the necessity for a single API that allows customers to connect once while the platform handles the complexity of various payment methods internally. This approach leverages a high-level architecture inspired by layered architecture and microservices, which effectively manages and abstracts the differences across payment methods.

Detailing the architecture, Akshay describes, "The application layer sits on top of the payment methods layer and communicates with it using a standardized interface. The payment method layer comprises microservices corresponding to payment methods, fulfilling the requests of the application layer in a normalized way." He continues, "This means that the application layer doesn’t need to understand how every payment method works and can delegate payment operations like issuance or tracking to the specific payment method service."

This architecture not only simplifies the integration process for gig customers but also ensures that their products and the platform's customer-facing dashboard and worker-facing wallet are built using the same set of public APIs, enhancing consistency and reliability across the board.

Innovative Strategies to Cater to Customer Integration Needs

Akshay also stresses the need to cater to the diverse integration requirements of customers of varying sizes. He explains, "It is important to design a product which meets the various go-to-market needs of customers," whether they are large firms seeking custom solutions or smaller entities needing quick integration. To address this, Akshay describes innovative strategies like offering "prebuilt, low-code integration options to smaller customers and a slew of APIs to the larger ones." This approach ensures that all customers, regardless of size, can find a suitable integration method that aligns with their operational pace and technical capacity.

Further detailing the integration strategies, Akshay emphasizes the universal application of public APIs to maintain simplicity and accessibility across the platform. "All gig payment platform capabilities are based on its own public APIs that are equally accessible to customers," he notes. This setup allows developers to choose the best fitting option – whether it's quickly adopting a low-code, prebuilt UI solution or custom-building their application using the same APIs. Examples like Checkr Pay's Embedded Wallet and Stripe Checkout and its API offerings illustrate how platforms can effectively use these strategies to provide flexible, scalable solutions for their customers, often leading to hybrid implementations where primary experiences leverage rich, custom-built solutions, while secondary experiences utilize low-code options.

Addressing Key Payment Challenges at Scale

Several critical challenges faced by gig companies when managing payments at scale are identified, particularly the difficulty of tracking cash flow. "Tracking cash flow is a challenge for gig companies," he explains, noting the disparity between the time it takes to settle credit card payments and the need to pay gig workers nearly instantly. To address this, he suggests implementing real-time low-balance notifications and using machine learning to predict necessary cash reserves. Additionally, he mentions, "In case a gig customer does run out of funds to make payments but has funds via pay-ins arriving soon, the payment platform can lend funds at an interest to temporarily plug the shortfall."

Dispute resolution is another significant challenge due to high volumes of payment reversals, which can stem from service disputes or incorrect banking information. To mitigate these issues, Akshay recommends validating payment method correctness using services like Plaid to verify bank details accurately and ensure that funds are paid into accounts that match the earner's identity. Furthermore, he emphasizes, "KYC-based solutions are used to verify the worker," ensuring that services are provided by qualified and authenticated individuals. This comprehensive approach not only streamlines operations but also builds trust and security in the gig economy payment platforms.

Understanding Gig Workers' Payment Preferences

Akshay emphasizes the diversity of payment preferences among gig workers, highlighting the need for tailored solutions. He explains, "One thing we’ve learned is that there is no 'one-size-fits-all solution.'" For instance, on-demand nurses, who typically receive large sums biweekly, find less value in instant payments due to the associated percentage-based fees. For them, payment methods such as free or low-cost direct deposits are more suitable. In contrast, gig workers in real-time jobs value the ability to receive instant payments, even if it incurs a fee, because it allows them immediate access to funds for urgent needs like unexpected medical costs.

The preference for payment flexibility extends to the platforms workers use to receive their earnings. Some gig workers opt for P2P social apps like Cash App, which are attractive due to their loyalty programs and allow earners to stretch their income further. Others prefer a traditional bank account, which helps them better manage their finances. Moreover, "It is very important for gig payment platforms to integrate with gig tax providers," Akshay notes. Such integrations help simplify the tax preparation process by providing pre-populated tax forms, underscoring the necessity for gig payment solutions to be versatile and responsive to the varied needs of their users.

Emerging Technologies Shaping the Future of Gig Payments

Looking ahead, Akshay sees several emerging technologies significantly impacting gig payment systems. He points to the growing adoption of RTP technologies by banks, which is likely to broaden the accessibility of real-time payments for more earners. This advancement, as Akshay notes, means that gig payment platforms would be able to offer it to more earners in the future, facilitating quicker access to earnings. Additionally, he discusses the evolution of fraud detection and security measures, mentioning tools from Sardine.ai, Salv, and Stripe Sigma that enhance real-time KYC processes and fraud detection.

"Real-time identity verification and payment transaction verification lead to reduced operational costs for companies by reducing fraud cases," Akshay directly states, highlighting their importance in running a cost-effective business.

Furthermore, Akshay elaborates on the integration of payment solutions with background checks, which simplifies the worker onboarding process by leveraging background check data to fulfill the compliance requirements to perform payment transfers, be it for tax purposes or to implement AML checks. He also mentions the strategic use of next-generation API chatbots that can analyze an earner's transaction history to drastically cut customer support costs. Lastly, he touches on the application of AI in implementing surge pricing based on supply and demand, which not only aids businesses in cost modeling but also helps earners increase their earnings during peak times. These technological advancements, as described by Akshay, are key to creating a more efficient and responsive payment infrastructure in the gig economy.

Akshay remains committed to finding pragmatic solutions to complex problems, thereby setting a precedent for future advancements in financial technologies tailored for the ever-evolving gig workforce. His dedication to both technology and the human aspects of gig work ensures that his effort remains at the forefront of industry innovations, ultimately supporting a more dynamic and resilient gig economy.