Line, a company building a modern inclusive financial network, has raised $25m in Equity and Debt, in a funding round led by Massive.
The round also saw participation from TASC Ventures, along with a group of BIPOC investors, social impact funds, and women-led funding like Goodwater Capital, SustainVC, Avesta Fund, Strada Education Network, The Josephine Collective, Overtime VC, Techstars and Kelmhurst. They were joined by angel investors Alex Haro, chief technology officer of MyMoneyKarma; John Kim, CEO of Sendbird; Chris Nguyen, co-founder of LogDNA; Soups Ranjan, CEO of Sardine; and Ethan Austin.
Line is a Public Benefit Corporation on a mission to deliver “unprecedented access to financial services with uncompromising quality and without restrictions like income type, income level or credit history.â€
The company said its long-term vision is an inclusive, interoperable financial network that replaces today’s “fragmented mess†that either forces folks who can least afford it to subsidise the ecosystem’s inefficiencies with fees and higher interest rates, or simply blocks them from access to products for not fitting outdated criteria.
Line said the funding will go towards gorwing its team and expanding its service. The round follows its previous $2m round.
Akshay Krishnaiah, Line’s founder and CEO, said, “Most of the financial industry focuses on the same group: people with a monthly or biweekly W2 paycheck and some mix of checking, savings and maybe investment accounts – and still indexed mostly towards men. Meanwhile, a growing portion of the population is making life work through a combination of gig work, hourly jobs, government assistance and cash wages. At least 50% of whom are women who earn a fraction of what men who do at the same job and lose pay when they take a leave of absence for caretaking responsibilities.
“My own experience immigrating from India where I was raised by parents who came from extreme poverty drove me to create Line to provide a relevant, inclusive and easily accessible financial product for everyone – without the added weight and cost of predatory practices constantly telling people who’s worthy and who’s not.â€
Copyright © 2022 FinTech Global
