Karat Financial raises $26m in Series A funding round
US fintech start-up Karat Financial, which offers business credit cards designed for digital creators and influencers, has landed $26 million in its Series A funding round.
The firm has been backed by Oscar-winning actor Jared Leto
The round was led by Union Square Ventures with participation from GGV Capital and SignalFire.
Oscar-winning actor and musician Jared Leto, and a host of popular internet personalities, also contributed to the financing.
Founded in 2019 by former Instagram product manager Eric Wei and investor Will Kim, the company offers digital entrepreneurs credit based on future revenue streams drawn from their follower counts, ad income or subscriber numbers.
Karat Financial secured a $4.6 million seed round in 2020 and launched its first credit card, the Karat Black Card, the same year.
TechCrunch reports that the company plans to use the funds to hire new staff and drive future product development, with a view to offering additional financial services.
Speaking to TechCrunch, Wei says: “We decided to roll Karat out with the same tried-and-true fintech playbook. Start out with something simple before wedging and scaling into those other products.
“Our whole model is, we use the cards to develop our underwriting model and gain trust from creators, and eventually, we can build to be Square for creators.”
