STAMFORD — FinTron, a financial technology startup founded by Sacred Heart University alumni, has announced the closing of a $6.5 million Series A funding round — an infusion that includes Connecticut investors and brings the firm’s total fundraising to nearly $10 million.
The funds will support the expansion of FinTron, which serves clients across 52 states and territories. The new initiatives will include the hiring of “world-class talent,” expanded educational programming and upgrades to technology and products including a new “rewards engine,” cryptocurrency trading capabilities and a “neo-bank” offering on the FinTron Invest app, according to the firm.
“We are grateful to our key investors for their support of our vision to bring financial inclusivity to the 99 percent,” FinTron co-founder and Chief Executive Officer Wilder Rumpf said in a statement. “Our founding mission remains the same. We strive to make personal finance accessible, understandable and doable for the mobile generation. With the support of our investors and new key hires, we can now accelerate our efforts to upgrade our product and meet our ambitious growth objectives.”
FinTron’s investors include Stamford-headquartered Webster Bank and Connecticut Innovations, the state-chartered venture capital organization.
“I have been following the company for over two years and watched them grow and hit all the milestones they presented to me,” Peter Longo, Connecticut Innovations’ senior managing director of investments, said in an email of CI’s $1 million investment in FinTron. “I really liked their approach of building out the educational component of the business and educating the new investors that join their platform. We also liked the demographic of their user base and feel that the traditional financial institutions are not meeting the needs of the under (age) 30, digital-first customers.”
Webster officials said their investment, whose amount they did not disclose, reflected the bank’s commitment to support financial literacy initiatives.
“The larger scale and resources created by our recently completed merger with Sterling Bancorp allows us to participate in investment such as this one in support of economic growth in our communities,” Webster said in a statement. “We were specifically inclined to invest in FinTron’s digital experience as a result of the educational component, which encourages financial literacy for people of all ages and aligns with our core values.”
Last year, FinTron launched its app whose features include investing in fractional shares, budgeting tools and educational resources. Since the launch, the app has gained about 12,000 users.
In addition, FinTron provides financial literacy programs to thousands of high school and college students across the country through FinTronU, a standalone platform that is separate from the app. FinTronU allows students to participate in simulated trading games and financial literacy courses, according to FinTron officials.
Led by 26-year-old Rumpf, FinTron describes itself as one of the youngest founding teams to ever register a broker-dealer. Originally based in Westport, the firm last month moved into its offices at 201 Broad St., in downtown Stamford. It has 13 full-time employees.
pschott@stamfordadvocate.com; twitter: @paulschott
Source: middletownpress.com
