Neobank Lili Raises $55 million in Series B Funding

Lili, a neobank that caters its products and services to freelancers, announced today that they have raised $55 million in Series B funding. The news brings the total amount of funding raised to $80 million, although the company is choosing to not disclose their evaluation at this time. This round of funding was led by Group 11, a venture capital firm heavily focused on fintech startups, as well as Target Global and AltaIR. The company was established just over a year ago in January of 2020, and in a short amount of time has already grown to over 200,000 users. 

Targeting the freelancer demographic

With the COVID-19 pandemic drastically changing the way the economy functions, a large portion of the population was forced to pivot into gig work and freelancing over the past year to survive. For those who had their normal places of employment forced to temporarily shut down or found themselves suddenly laid off, a shift towards using their other skills to make a living was necessary. A significant proportion of the hardest-hit workers were women, and as a result, it is unsurprising to learn that over 60% of Lili users are female.

To meet the needs of these new entrepreneurs, Lili was created as a flexible and digital-only financial management solution. As a neobank, Lili has created a mobile application where users can manage their finances without the need to go to physical branches. Through a clean and easy user interface, clients can track spending, budget expenses, and ensure that they are saving enough to cover taxes amongst many other features. In the absence of a traditional employer that would track all of this information for their employees, the services provided by Lili reduce the burden placed on new freelancers who may lack financial knowledge. To make things easier on clients, Lili also provides personal banking services alongside their business banking, allowing users to have all their financial information in one easy-to-access system. 

Integration with other services

As a next step, Lili co-founder and CEO Lilac Bar David has expressed a desire to integrate third-party applications into the Lili system. Currently, Lili already supports both Venmo applications that are commonly used by freelancers for invoicing. Aside from this type of integration, Lili is also looking to expand their product offerings, with an intention to launch a new credit product that allows freelancers to gain access to loans and other services. in the near future. This credit offering is especially important for freelancers, who often have hard times securing money due to a lack of stable income history. The company currently employs 40 people in their Israel and New York offices and is predicting that the number of staff will double in order to launch these new products.