Pinwheel’s Series B and our path towards a fairer financial future
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Pinwheel’s Series B and our path towards a fairer financial future

January 18, 2022

Today, we're incredibly excited to share that Pinwheel has raised $50M in Series B funding led by GGV Capital, with participation from existing investors Coatue, First Round Capital, Upfront Ventures, and new investors Company Ventures, Franklin Templeton, Indeed, Kraken Ventures, and TQ Ventures.

Building the income data layer for financial services

The burgeoning fintech ecosystem has brought about unprecedented digitally-powered financial capabilities–from branchless neobanks to digital payments that help small businesses thrive, or the ability to instantly send money to family and friends across borders–that have truly reshaped the way we live. These advancements were all made possible by the underlying infrastructure laid by the likes of Stripe, Plaid, and others, powering some of the world’s most beloved financial applications. We’re excited to build upon this fintech foundation by adding the most critical missing part of the financial equation: income.

Income and employment status are the key determining factors in all financial decisions, yet these pieces of information have not been easily accessible, making it impossible to tailor financial services offerings to a person’s specific financial situation. At Pinwheel, we’re working to fix that by providing an income data layer that leads the industry in terms of reliability, security, and coverage.

Not only does Pinwheel maintain over a 99.999% uptime while processing monthly volumes of 1M+, but Pinwheel’s coverage includes over 1,400 platforms (more than triple the industry’s average). These platforms range from traditional payroll providers for the Top 100 employers across the nation to unemployment benefits and gig or creator platforms. Uniquely, Pinwheel is not limited to salaried paychecks, but also individual hourly clock-ins. Spanning our coverage across nearly 80% (and growing!) of people in the United States is critical for our customers to be able to develop tools and services that can help everyone, especially the large populations of financially unhealthy, or those still considered to be unbanked. Additionally, we are the only company that handles both direct deposit switching and the provision of payroll data to be a Consumer Reporting Agency (CRA) compliant with the Fair Credit Reporting Act (FCRA). With Pinwheel’s consumer permissioned connectivity, it’s now possible for fintechs, financial institutions, and more, to roll out new offerings that benefit consumers through our platform - from earned wage access (EWA), paycheck linked lending, dynamic loan options, and more. The possibilities are exciting and endless.

What's next?

Our mission has been the driving catalyst along the way, and it would not be attainable without our partners. Our investors, including GGV Capital and today’s $50M Series B investment (more here). Our customers, the industry’s pioneering fintechs such as Block (formerly Square), Daylight, Lendly, Varo, and more. Our fellow Pinwheelers, who share in our tenacity and devotion towards improving our financial world.

This year, we will remain committed to powering the industry’s leading income connectivity layer, and to innovating new products (e.g., continuing work on earned wage access offerings and expanding into new areas such as tax preparation) that address antiquated processes that have left many people excluded and underserved by our financial system.

If you’re interested in learning more about how our APIs can help power use cases from Direct Deposit Switching, Income & Employment Verification, Paycheck Linked Lending, and more, reach out to our team here

Interested in joining our team? Checkout our careers page.

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