UK-based fintech startup Pillar has raised about €15.6m in pre-seed funding round to develop a new credit platform.
The funding round was led by venture capital firms Global Founders Capital and Backed VC, reported EU-Startups.
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Several angel investors also contributed to the raise, including Peter Briffet and Portman Wills, the founders of WageStream, as well as Oliver Jung, investor and former vice president and investor of AirBnB.
Pillar was set up last year by Revolut alumni Ashutosh Bhatt and fintech CTO, Adam Lewis.
The firm focuses on offering immigrants with access to credit cards and loans when shifting to a new country.
Powered with data and analytics, its open banking platform, which is expected to be launched in Q3 2022, will score and offer access to credit products to immigrants with a slim credit file.
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By GlobalDataThe proceeds from the round will be used to build the platform further and scale up operational infrastructure to back growth plans.
Its team has experience in open banking, neo-banking, lending and financial tech.
Pillar CEO Ashutosh Bhatt said: “Ever since I moved to the UK and found I couldn’t access any of the everyday products I had in India this has been a problem I have been passionate about solving. I arrived earning a good salary at Barclays and found I couldn’t even get an iPhone!
“Fourteen years later, and the world of credit still hasn’t changed, so we have set upon building a globally scalable platform that breaks down data silos and credit borders as well as solves this massive problem faced by financially secure people moving to a new country.”
