Friz, a neobank for freelancers, has closed a $1 million initial investment round from a number of investors, including Indonesia’s Amand Ventures, Iterative Ventures, and Y Combinator.
Founders and CEOs of unidentified Indian e-commerce firms, as well as early Qonto and Funding Societies staff, participated in the round.
In April of this year, the company received a pre-seed round of funding from Y Combinator, 500 Durians, 500 TukTuks, and Iterative.
The freelancer economy has nearly quadrupled since 2016, according to the Online Labour Index, with Asia accounting for 70% of global freelancing talent.
Due to trends in remote work and the rise of freelancing platforms, workers are increasingly accepting project-based employment. Most non-salaried contract freelancers, on the other hand, have trouble getting basic banking services like customised debit cards, credit cards, and invoicing.
Traditional consumer banking is designed for paid employees, and most freelancers are unable to obtain a business bank account without having a company entity.
Friz intends to address this problem by establishing a neobank in collaboration with Matchmove, Mastercard, and Funding Societies.
Friz, which launched in April 2020, uses data insights to provide freelancers with financial products such as credit cards, personal loans, insurance, savings, and investment products. Freelancers may use Friz to keep track of their earnings, spending, savings, and borrowings all in one place.
Friz claims to have grown 500 percent month over a month since its start.
“70 percent of our customers are very unhappy with mass-market banking and want a personalised financial tool that solves their problems. Our users are tired of broken financial solutions and being excluded from basic financial services,” Nirali Zaveri, CEO, and co-founder of Friz said.
Friz has gained organic growth among digital marketers, content creators, programmers, accountants, attorneys, and many other knowledge economy freelancers who are eager to experience financial independence since its start in Singapore.
