Robinhood veterans' fintech raises US$60m in funding round

PARAFIN, a financial-technology startup run by former Robinhood Markets staffers, raised US$60 million in its second funding round.

GIC, Singapore's sovereign wealth fund, led the fundraising, Parafin said in a statement. GIC joined existing investors including Thrive and Ribbit Capital to value the company at US$520 million, and bring its total equity funding to US$94 million.

Founded in 2020 by Sahill Poddar, Ralph Furman, and Vineet Goel, Parafin works with companies such as DoorDash and Mindbody to build their financing arms, with a focus on lending to small businesses.

"As we started the company during the pandemic, we noticed small businesses weren't getting the help they needed," Goel said in an interview. "We want to be the 1-stop shop to enable these platforms to offer a variety of financial products."

Earlier investors in Parafin include Robinhood chief executive officer Vlad Tenev, Robinhood co-founder Baiju Bhatt, DoorDash co-founder Stanley Tang, Chime co-founder and chief technology officer Ryan King and SV Angel.

Parafin said it also raised a debt facility of as much as US$150 million from Atalaya Capital Management, and Jefferies Financial Group. BLOOMBERG