Finch raises $2.25m for Gen Y finance app after ‘proving it can rival’ Silicon Valley fintechs
Melbourne-based fintech startup Finch has closed an oversubscribed seed round, raising $2.25m in funding for its social payments app for millennials.
Launched in July, the Finch app allows users to pay and request money instantly (without a BSB), split bills, run tabs in groups to track shared expenses.
According to Shahirah Gardner, who co-founded the startup with her husband Toby Gardner and their friend Eric Kuhn in 2016, the seed funding will be used to complete product market fit, scale product development, grow its Melbourne-based team and accelerate customer acquisition.
In conversation with Dynamic Business, Gardner said the app began to generate interest from investors after Finch graduated from Envestnet | Yodlee – the No. 1 US-based Fintech program – earlier this year.
“Our strong performance throughout the program proved to a lot of people that Finch has the team and strategy to rival anything coming out of Silicon Valley at the moment,” she said. “In fact, when we went through the program, we were the only startup not funded…and we still won best product demo!
“As a result of this success, we’ve been courted by investors from both Silicon Valley and Australia, for months. We felt it was important, however, to hold back until we were ready to talk strategy and had a proven product in the market.”
Gardner said this approach paid off, allowing the founding team to carefully select strategic investors and fintech VCs that would help Finch grow.
“Only a handful of investors were privy to our seed round – three from the US and the rest from Australia,” she said. “While we’re not disclosing our investors at this stage, I can say they have proven track-record of working with fintech companies and helping them to scale rapidly.
“Further, although we were only looking to raise $1.5 million, we ended up receiving $3m in term sheets in just two weeks, before settling for $2.25m. From initial conversation to closing the round, it took only 6 weeks.”
Gardner said Finch has been enjoying “incredible growth” across Australia during its first few months on the market, with thousands of early adopters using the company’s app.
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