After bootstrapping for the better part of the last eleven years, Charlotte-based Finzly is ending 2023 with a big fundraising announcement.
The fintech startup closed a $10 million Series A round from New York-based TZP Growth Equity last month, a move that founder Booshan Rengachari would help bolster the company’s marketing, sales, and production efforts.
The Series A comes as Finzly has more than doubled its space in Charlotte over the last six months, Rengachari told Hypepotamus. Finzly has made a name for itself recently as the first platform to offer an API connection to FedNow, the instant payment service rolled out by the Federal Reserve earlier this year.
Finzly is taking on a major problem within the world of consumer banking. Banks currently have to deal with “outdated platforms” and multiple different systems for their payment infrastructure space – be it FedNow, ACH, or instant payment options like Zelle. This creates a disjointed and complicated experience for the end-user.
Get To Know Finzly
Finzly’s Payment Hub offers a central processing API for domestic, instant, and international payments.
Finzly has built out a “FedEx-style experience” where banks can offer speed and agility around how payments happen. That allows banks to offer options in terms of “how fast” money can be moved around from one spot to another.
It is all about keeping up with “real-time financial services demanded by today’s real-time economy,” Rengachari added in a statement.
Following the Series A, TZP’s lead partner Shamit Mehta will join Finzly’s board of directors.
“We envision Finzly as a catalyst in the transition towards more agile and customer-centric banking experiences. Finzly is well-positioned to drive significant advancements in how banking and financial services operate and will become a category-defining company,” Mehta said.
TZP most recently raised a $565 million fund in 2017, according to Crunchbase.
Finzly’s Series A defies the generally sluggish fintech investment landscape we have seen over the last year. Deal volume continued to decline during the first three quarters of 2023, with only later-stage fintechs seeing some signs of bouncing back in terms of deal count and funding values, according to research from S&P Global Market Intelligence.
Finzly is one of several strong fintech firms growing in Charlotte, a major banking and financial center in the US. Rengachari himself grew his career within the Charlotte banking scene, having served as a Technology Manager for Wells Fargo and a Senior Capital Markets Engineer at Wachovia before diving into startups.
