Lili Notches $55 Million For Freelancers’ Digital Banking Service

Lili, the New York- and Israel-based banking app for freelancers, has raised $55 million in a Series B funding round, which brings the startup’s total funding to date to $80 million, Forbes reported. The funding round was led by Group 11, with participation from existing investors including Target Global and Altair.

“This is about financial services for freelancers,” said Lili Co-founder and CEO Lilac Bar David, per Forbes. “We are redefining a new kind of user, who is between a consumer and a business and has specific needs. If you look at the economy and what the future of work will look like, this really needs to be addressed.” Before getting Lili off the ground, she had worked at Israel’s Leumi Card and later founded the Tel Aviv-based digital bank Pepper.

“It’s not like you’re looking for veterans in everything you do,” said Group 11 Founding Partner Dovi Frances, per Forbes. “In Lili’s case, the know-how of how to build a [digital banking app] from inception, how to manage the unit economics properly … how to work with the regulators, with the card issuers, and what have you, is really important.”

Launched in late 2019, the startup offers a cross-section of banking services for the more than 200,000 freelancers it serves. The company has also launched services to further assist freelancers, like the “Personalized Tax Buckets” feature to help entrepreneurs track taxes owed and put something aside for savings in a separate account.

Lilac Bar David told PYMNTS in an interview in November 2020 that the company now has a record of almost 100,000 accounts. In June 2020, banks were starting to cater to a growing base of independent contractors and freelance creatives.