FinTech startup Curve has faced lot of criticism lately. Now the founder has responded to the bad press his venture has received by essentially accusing the media of publishing fake news.
The Financial Times has accused Curve of not being transparent about its crowdfunding campaign and Business Insider has claimed that the startup had misrepresented how much customers use the service.
Shachar Bialick has now labelled these allegations as “lies” and “untruths” in a new interview with The Telegraph.
Curve has positioned itself as solution that brings everyone’s different payment solutions in under one umbrella, from credit cards to bank accounts. It has established partnerships with companies like Apple, Google and wearable companies like FitBit and Garmin, to name a few.
The company has raised millions since the launch in 2015, most recently in a £6m crowdfunding campaign and in a $55m Series B investment round in 2019.
When Curve launched its crowdfunding campaign, the Financial Times accused Curve of not giving investors enough financial information about how the startup operates.
Bialick told The Telegraph that it was “not the right thing to provide any information” as it could give Curve’s competitors an edge. He added that crowdfunding investors should just trust the due diligence carried out by institutional investors.
However, in order to woo investors, the FinTech founder must still ensure them that people are actually using its services. So when Business Insider reported that only 14% of Curve’s customers used the card, it suggested that users simply were not as engaged as the company’s leader claimed they were.
Bialick denied the allegations, stating that the 14% figure was a year old when the original story ran. Instead, he stated that the real figure was around 80%.
A third critique levelled against Curve was that some freelancers who had ordered personal Curve cards had been sent corporate cards, which would incur a higher fee. Bialick responded that these were “very specific incidents” and that the issue has been resolved.
Copyright © 2020 FinTech Global
