Fintech Startup Flinks Raises $500K to Connect with Banks
Montreal-based fintech startup Flinks has raised $500,000 in a pre-seed round to kick off commercialization of its product.
Founded in December, Flinks connects applications with Canadian banks. Flinks’ financial API allows users to synchronize their banking information with the app of their choosing in the savings, investment, and crypto-currency sectors.
“We’ve been very focused on getting our product to the market quickly,” says Yves-Gabriel Leboeuf, Flinks’ 26-year-old CEO. “So it was a strong validation for us when we went live in April, less than four months into it. The market traction we’ve received since then has been nothing short of spectacular.”
The increasing popularity of finance apps explains the current demand from applications to access their users’ banking information.
“I don’t think Flinks timing could have been better,” added Leboeuf.
And he is unapologetic in his claim that every new Fintech needs Flinks’ services: “are you really going to use the old method of micro deposits to validate an account?” he posits, “Or ask for PDFs of bank statements to access your user’s transactions?”
He has a point. Canadian consumers adopting these new apps expect an impeccable user-experience, which often times require services like those of Flinks.
The startup has built its minimum viable product mostly from founders’ seed money and is now adding new funds to reach their target: impact one million users by the end of 2017.
“What’s funny is that consumers are unlikely to ever know Flinks, as we’re the solution behind their favourite finance app,” says Leboeuf. “That said, everything we do is oriented towards improving user-experience. Everyone in the team knows very well how important Flinks’ role is.”
The round mostly comes from friends and family of founders, as well as a couple of early employees.
“It’s pretty normal for founders to give equity to early employees. Having guys participating with their own money on top of it, that is uncommon, and it speaks loudly about the level of commitment of these guys,” added Leboeuf.
