SMB Fundraising FinTech Parafin Raises $60M

Parafin, a FinTech launched by veterans of Robinhood Markets, has raised $60 million in a new financing round.

As Bloomberg News reported Tuesday (Aug. 2), the round — the company’s third — was led by GIC Pte, Singapore’s sovereign wealth fund, along with existing investors including Thrive and Ribbit Capital. The round valued Parafin at $520 million and brought its total equity funding to $94 million.

Other investors include Robinhood Chief Executive Officer Vlad Tenev, Robinhood Co-founder Baiju Bhatt, DoorDash Co-founder Stanley Tang and Chime Co-founder and Chief TechnologyOfficer Ryan King. The company also raised a debt facility of as high as $150 million from Atalaya Capital Management, and Jefferies Financial Group Inc., Bloomberg said.

Founded in 2020 by former Robinhood staffers Sahill Poddar, Ralph Furman and Vineet Goel, Parafin works with companies like DoorDash Inc. and Mindbody to help grow their financing operations, with a focus on lending to small and medium-sized businesses (SMBs).

“As we started the company during the pandemic, we noticed small businesses weren’t getting the help they needed,” Goel said told Bloomberg. “We want to be the one-stop shop to enable these platforms to offer a variety of financial products.”

Read more: 3 Must-Have B2B Payment Tools for Small Businesses

Recent PYMNTS research found that lack of access to financing is a major pain point for small businesses.

In addition to financing, our research also found that small businesses are also seeking an all-in-one payment platform, with many SMBs saying they are ready to pay for it.

Sixty-seven percent of SMBs told PYMNTS they would be willing to pay to use an all-in-one payment solution if the cost of the solution was approximately 1% of the payment amount, and nearly three quarters (73%) say they would use one if the rewards, time savings and tax deductions offset the cost of the platform.

Our study found that while SMBs are highly concerned about data security and complexity, they are also eager to enjoy the benefits of streamlined payments.