Forget about loan sharks when you need money before payday.

Ram Palaniappan has introduced a new approach that could help employees with their money problems.

Palaniappan said the reason behind the culture of borrowing money is the concept of payday itself. He believes that workers do not need to wait too long for them to get the money they worked hard for. This issue pushed Palaniappan to develop ActiveHours. This has recently raised about $4.1 million. This mobile app allows workers to access their hard-earned money without having to wait for the standard pay cycle.

The best thing about the app is that one can get it for free. Basically, the app developer earns on giving money tips, and requesting users to send payment in return.

Employees can easily sign up to use ActiveHours. They just need to provide their bank account details. This mobile app has a system that allows it to verify the timesheet provided by the worker as well as the hours logged.

ActiveHours has a geolocation feature to check if the user is really at work when the photo of the timesheet was taken. If the logged sheets are approved, the user can check how much he/she has earned, and a percentage of the amount can be deposited to the user's bank account. It essentially allows workers to avail of cash advance. The amount can be credited after 24 hours.

Despite the benefits of the mobile app, many experts end up not convinced with it. Adair Morse, assistant professor at the UN Berkeley's School of Business, said the app is prone to abuse. He added that by payday, the money may be already gone giving the user without any amount to rely on.

According to Palaniappan, however, no case of abuse has been reported so far.