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A Techstars Austin grad had a very happy end to last week.
Self Lender has raised a $1.5 million seed round from Silverton Partners. The new infusion of capital will primarily be used to build out their team, specifically with engineering roles and customer care specialists.
"Fintech companies are really, really hard to start due to the complex regulatory environment, and high barrier to entry," Conor Swanson, co-founder and COO, said in an email. "Techstars helped us accelerate our fundraising, and bank partnership discussions, while Silverton is helping us accelerate the execution of our business. Now, we just have to get to work. We have unique opportunity to build a business that can positively impact millions of people's access to credit. We love the mission, and the challenge that lies ahead."
Self Lender had previously raised $535,000 from TechStars, Kickstart Seed Fund, and Galvanize Ventures, making their total capital $2.035 million.
Self Lender is solving the "credit catch 22" by allowing consumers to improve their credit by providing actual tools and data tracking to note progress while gaining access to an array of affordable financial products. Self Lender helps consumers establish and build credit through an easy to understand platforn with the tools to implement progress.
Founders James Garvey and Conor Swanson, originally based out of Denver, told Built In Austin in a previous article that education consumers about the importance of good credit history has been their biggest challenge. They've had to go through hundreds of variations of copy in order to get to the current message.
"For the rest of the summer, we're carefully integrating Self Lender with our strategic banking partner. We anticipate being able to do the first 100 loans by September," Swanson said "It's critical that we scale Self Lender in a safe and sound manner, and we expect that by January, we'll be able to operate at full run rate."
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