ESG-focused fintech Spiral raises $28mn to launch B2B model

New York-based fintech startup Spiral has raised US$28mn in Series A to help banks and fintechs embed sustainability and social impact into their businesses.

Spiral is planning to use the funding to launch a technology model called ‘Impact-as-a-Service’, which simplifies back-office operations, donation processing, compliance and technical integrations with 1.5 million charities to allow banks and financial institutions to engage consumers in their ESG agendas.

The startup was founded in 2019 by former Morgan Stanley Managing Director Shawn Melamed. Its first product was a socially responsible consumer banking app, which amassed more than 65,000 users and processed $65mn in transactions in under a year. Spiral says this proof of concept demonstrates how successful can be in the transition to a B2B model.

Spiral ‘a game-changer’ for banks and FIs

The latest Series A funding comes courtesy of lead investor Team8 alongside additional backers Euclidean Capital, Intuition Fund, Communitas Capital, Phoenix, and Nidoco AB.

"After launching our own mission-driven consumer banking app and witnessing its rapid growth, we saw that rather than offering an independent banking app, the greatest value would be to partner with other financial institutions,” Founder and CEO Shawn Melamed says.

“We decided to make our technology accessible to help more people and businesses make an impact easily using their current banking and financial apps. We realised that our innovative impact products are game-changer differentiators for banks, credit unions and financial institutions that want to lead the market and give back to their communities while increasing their revenues and expanding their customer base."