Fizz Raises to $14.4M to Help College Students Graduate With Both Credit Histories and No Crippling Debt – AlleyWatch

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58% of Gen Z consumers present a choice for debit playing cards over bank cards, indicating a development towards avoiding potential debt accumulation. Nonetheless, usually, debit card utilization doesn’t contribute to credit score constructing since such transactions should not reported to credit score bureaus. Enter Fizz, a monetary literacy platform coupled with a debit card, designed for school college students. It requires no prior credit score historical past, cosigners, or safety deposits. The platform incorporates AI-powered budgeting instruments that tailor spending limits and provides customized suggestions, alongside gamified instructional programs. Distinctive to Fizz, it experiences to credit score bureaus, enabling college students to ascertain a credit score historical past and likewise keep away from conventional bank cards. Moreover, it options an in depth rewards program. At the moment, Fizz is operational in over 300 schools and is projected to surpass 9 figures in annual card quantity this yr.

AlleyWatch caught up with Fizz COO and Cofounder Scott Smith to be taught extra in regards to the enterprise, the corporate’s strategic plans, current spherical of funding, and far, rather more…

Who have been your traders and the way a lot did you elevate?

We raised a $14.4M seed spherical led by Kleiner Perkins, with participation from SV Angel, Y-Combinator, New Period Ventures, and the founders and operators behind many family title unicorns, like Postmates, Handshake, Public.com, and Airbnb.

Inform us in regards to the services or products that Fizz provides.

Fizz makes a monetary literacy and budgeting app for school college students, and a debit card that builds credit score. With Fizz, college students get a holistic house for all issues monetary adulting, from constructing credit score historical past and monitoring their rating, to AI financial savings suggestions, a budgeting toolkit, and game-like monetary literacy programs.

What impressed the beginning of Fizz?

Carlo (cofounder) and I confronted the difficulties of economic adulting, lack of economic literacy, and constructing credit score historical past head on. As a freshman at Harvard, Carlo couldn’t get authorized for a bank card, and couldn’t begin constructing credit score historical past. A couple of states away at Cornell, I noticed that even my smartest pals weren’t nicely knowledgeable about their funds, and didn’t have good cash habits. We each dropped out to create Fizz and develop the merchandise that we and our pals desperately wanted in class.

How is Fizz completely different?

What units Fizz aside is that we create monetary merchandise completely for school college students and younger adults. This group is neglected as a result of they typically don’t but have credit score scores, or regular revenue streams, however that doesn’t imply they don’t want options that may present client and enterprise worth. By focusing solely on 18-24 yr olds, we will construct tailor-made options that deal with their distinctive wants, unlocking important untapped potential, and driving immense worth for customers.

What market does Fizz goal and the way huge is it?

Fizz targets faculty college students (>20M of them within the US, with 5M freshmen getting into every fall), and younger adults. Fizz is focusing on essentially the most useful and excessive LTV phase in client finance and retail banking.

What’s your online business mannequin?

Fizz makes cash primarily from subscriptions, interchange charges, and affiliate partnerships.

How are you getting ready for a possible financial slowdown?

Fizz constructed and owns practically all of its personal ironclad software program infrastructure, driving important price synergies and permitting it to broaden throughout the vertical sooner.

What was the funding course of like?

Fizz ran a standard fundraising course of bi-coastally, courting traders in New York, and in Silicon Valley. We took 95% of Fizz’s fundraising conferences in individual.

What are the most important challenges that you just confronted whereas elevating capital?

Demonstrating that there’s nonetheless immense and sturdy worth in client and in fintech, impartial of market cyclicality.

What elements about your online business led your traders to write down the verify?

Distinctive penetration into a really useful phase with one of many quickest monetary merchandise and platforms to realize adoption amongst faculty college students since Venmo.

What are the milestones you intend to realize within the subsequent six months?

Deliver Fizz to much more schools and universities, and turn out to be the go-to monetary useful resource for the incoming class of 2028.

What recommendation are you able to supply firms in New York that would not have a recent injection of capital within the financial institution?

Staying lean and speaking to your customers isn’t essentially as trite because it might sound. Fizz constructed its infrastructure with an extremely small crew, and with much less cash than the subsequent closest competitor. Speaking to customers obsessively can assist you establish the place the enterprise can drive near-term money flows in generally extremely shocking or surprising methods. This goes for each B2B and client.

Staying lean and speaking to your customers isn’t essentially as trite because it might sound. Fizz constructed its infrastructure with an extremely small crew, and with much less cash than the subsequent closest competitor. Speaking to customers obsessively can assist you establish the place the enterprise can drive near-term money flows in generally extremely shocking or surprising methods. This goes for each B2B and client.

The place do you see the corporate going now over the near-term?

Fizz has a really formidable product roadmap and is at the moment sprinting to launch two extra merchandise earlier than the 2024 fall back-to-school season.

What’s your favourite summer season vacation spot in and across the metropolis?

Prospect Park is nice for summer season weekends, and there’s nothing higher than a summer season workday in Soho, the place practically 90% of Fizz’s crew works in individual.