Digital lending and payments ‘non-bank’ WLTH has today announced it has closed a $3 million seed round, as the company strategically prepares for its next scaleup phase and expansion into overseas markets, all whilst maintaining a strong focus on creating positive environmental change.
Since the 2021 launch of its new Variable Owner Occupied Home Loan rate of 1.99 per cent (comp rate 2.05 per cent) and the flagship digital application system, ‘Lending Loop’, WLTH has generated in excess of $700 million in loan enquiries.
WLTH will use the raised capital to fast track the growth of its proprietary fintech platforms, ahead of the upcoming launches of its business payments platform and loyalty program ‘WLTH + Loyalty’, as well as make key hires to bolster its world-class team.
The funding will also be used to continue the support of its clean ocean initiative in partnership with global eco-organisation Parley for the Oceans, which promises to clean up 50m2 of coastline for every loan settled, as well as issue cards made from recycled ocean plastic.
Off the back of the seed raise, WLTH has also unveiled it will open a Series A funding round in August 2021, with the goal of raising $15 million.
WLTH intends to work with small and medium business owners to develop a suite of products to solve cash flow issues, including card-linked credit facilities, invoice-secured buy-now-pay-later (BNPL) options for businesses, loyalty points, and a high-security business payments platform.
Co-founder and CEO of WLTH, Brodie Haupt said: “After a very successful six months since our official market launch, we have been fortunate enough to exceed our future growth projections and hit our seed raising targets, which will help to bring us one step closer in establishing ourselves as a market leader; one of our core objectives since conceptualising WLTH to shake up the lending and payments space.
“As part of this vision, WLTH is committed to creating real impact for our environment, in comparison to many of the big banks that maintain cosmetic CSR policies, while contributing tonnes of plastic credit card waste into the oceans each year. Having just launched our five-year partnership with Parley for the Oceans, we will be working closely to fight back against plastic pollution and use our resources to drive positive change on Aussie shores and overseas.
“As we move towards our Series A, we’ve set a target to settle a further $1.2 billion loans over the next financial year, and we are excited to continue growing our business through strategic acquisitions, while also delivering our full product ecosystem to market,” Haupt concluded.
Founded in Brisbane in 2019 by serial entrepreneurs Brodie Haupt, Drew Haupt, Darren Hodgkin, and John Kerr, WLTH is on a mission to refresh the financial services industry in Australia through bringing to market a suite of tech-centric products, including feature-laden transactional accounts, a powerful payments application, a high-value loyalty system and an innovative fintech pipeline for Australian consumers and businesses.