- All-in-one banking app company Lili announced it raised a $15 million funding round. These are the details.
All-in-one banking app company Lili announced it raised a $15 million funding round to accelerate growth as the American workforce is increasingly turning to freelance during COVID-19. This round of funding was led by Group 11 with major participation from Foundation Capital, AltaIR Capital, Primary Venture Partners, Torch Capital, and Zeev Ventures.
This round of funding brings the total amount raised to $25 million, following the company’s seed round in June as growth in the freelance economy has driven a 700% increase in transaction volume since the beginning of the pandemic. And the company plans to use the funds to expand its product and engineering teams and accelerate customer adoption.
There are nearly 60 million freelancers in the U.S. And as a result of COVID-19, 12% of the US workforce started freelancing this year. This accelerated the shift toward independent work has led to nearly 100,000 freelancers opening Lili accounts since its launch. The average monthly spending per customer has more than doubled this year.
Lili is the only company that combines banking services with real-time expense tracking, tax tools, and financial insights so freelancers can stay in control of their finances. And freelancers across dozens of industries and all 50 states have opened accounts via the iOS and Android mobile apps.
Whether they are full-time independent workers or part-time freelancers, Lili’s customers span across many industries from e-commerce shop owners to designers, programmers, fitness instructors, construction workers, chefs, beauty professionals, etc. And Lili’s customers gain free access to 38,000 ATMs across the country without a minimum balance requirement and they pay zero account, overdraft, or foreign transaction fees.
Lili’s founders are serial entrepreneurs with 20 years of banking industry experience — CEO Lilac Bar David and CTO Liran Zelkha (who previously worked as a freelancer) were inspired to create a solution for independent workers’ financial pain points.
Prior to Lili, Bar David and Zelkha founded Pepper, which is the first and largest challenger bank in Israel.
And they grew the company to more than 200 employees who designed and built the banking product from the ground up, including Pepper Pay (mobile payments), Pepper Bank (banking services), and Pepper Invest (investment app).
KEY QUOTES:
“We believe the future of work is freelance, and as the pandemic has recently changed everything about how people approach their careers, the American workforce’s shift toward independence has accelerated even faster than we anticipated. Our mission is to empower freelancers to better manage their money and businesses, and we’ve seen exponential growth in demand over the past several months, as more people are looking for all-in-one financial solutions that are tailored to the unique ways they work. We are looking forward to expanding our product suite and market leadership while providing freelancers with an unparalleled banking experience.”
— Lili co-founder and CEO Lilac Bar David
“We have been impressed with Lili’s clear product-market fit and subsequent growth. As the global workforce evolves at a rapid pace, we are excited to lead another round of funding to help Lili capitalize on unprecedented demand and offer an entirely new solution to help freelancers seamlessly save time and money.”
— Dovi Frances, Managing Partner at Group 11
