FinTech News

Payments Platform Highline Closes $13 Million Funding Round

A payment platform that could benefit both consumers and lenders has closed a significant early-stage funding round. This week, Highline Technologies announced that it had raised $13 million. The Series A was led by Jump Capital, Costanoa Ventures, and Foundation Capital with participation from other investors. It also follows a $4.5 million seed round that Highline raised in February. With the added funds, the company plans to continuing fueling its growth, including hiring more staff, creating strategic partnership opportunities, and working to expand market adoption.

Founded in 2020, Highline is payments platform that allows consumers to set bills to auto-pay by having funds directly taken from their paychecks. This, in turn, helps them avoid missed payments while also reducing risk on the part of lenders. According to their site, the service can help lenders decrease missed payments by as much as two-thirds, while also reducing the rate of default by more than half. Furthermore, they estimate that these payroll-linked payments improve consumer creditworthiness by the equivalent of “80 to 100 FICO points.”

Commenting on the Series A, Highline co-founder and CEO Geoff Brown said, “We are grateful to our investors and excited by the possibilities that this round of funding represents. It will enable us to continue building a world-class team and connect with a growing number of customers and partners throughout the industry who are equally committed to providing more borrowers with access to the credit and banking services they deserve.”

As for what investors saw in Highline, Jump Capital partner Yelena Shkolnik said in a statement, “When speaking to lenders, we heard a consistent refrain – they were all aware that connecting to borrowers’ payroll would drastically reduce defaults and materially improve their competitive positions. Most had tried and failed to leverage deductions, challenged to compliantly manage the funds flow, or offer adequate employer coverage. In Highline, lenders have the solution they’ve searched for and a powerful end customer experience to transform their lending.”

Highline’s raise is the latest successful early-round FinTech deal to close during what’s been a bit of a hit-or-miss year for the industry. That reality is likely somewhat due to the current uncertainty that’s emerged as mixed signals about where the economy is headed continue to come out. On that note, however, services such as Highline’s could well be useful should the United States formally enter a recession as lenders might otherwise need to pull back on their lending. Either way, Highline’s early success seems to be setting them on a strong growth path.