Freelancer Banking App Lili Nets $15M For Expansion

All-in-one banking app Lili, which is typically used for freelancers, has raised $15 million in a funding round, a press release says, bringing its total raised to $25 million.

Growth in freelance has resulted in a 700 percent spike in Lili’s transaction volume since the pandemic began. The new capital will be used to help Lili boost its ever-growing expansion and add to its product and engineering teams and boost customer adoption, the release says.

Freelancing has become an increasingly larger portion of the American workforce as the COVID-19 pandemic ravaged the workforce and resulted in mass layoffs, leaving millions to fend for themselves in making money this year.

The release notes that 12 percent of the American workforce started freelancing this year due to the pandemic, with almost 60 million people doing freelance work in total.

The release says almost 100,000 people have started using Lili since it launched, but average spending per customer has more than doubled in 2020, the release says.

The company offers users real-time, expense tracking tools for taxes and financial insights. There’s a digital debit card offered which lets users begin banking immediately without waiting for a card in the mail, the release says, and the app is functional with Google Pay, Cash App and Venmo.

Lilac Bar David, co-founder and CEO for the company, said Lili believes “the future of work is freelance, and as the pandemic has recently changed everything about how people approach their careers.”

“Our mission is to empower freelancers to better manage their money and businesses, and we’ve seen exponential growth in demand over the past several months, as more people are looking for all-in-one financial solutions that are tailored to the unique ways they work,” he said, according to the release. “We are looking forward to expanding our product suite and market leadership while providing freelancers with an unparalleled banking experience.”

The round was led by Group 11, with major participation from Foundation Capital, AltaIR Capital, Primary Venture Partners, Torch Capital, and Zeev Ventures. It follows a seed funding round from earlier this year that netted Lili $10 million.