We are thrilled to announce that Current.com, a Future\Perfect Ventures II seed investment and an important force for financial inclusion in the United States, has raised a $220M Series C round valuing the company at a $2.2B valuation. Andreessen Horowitz led the round with participation by returning investors, Tiger Global Management, TQ Ventures, Avenir, Sapphire Ventures, Foundation Capital and Wellington Management. They have now raised $400 million.
In an interview with TechCrunch, Stuart Sopp, Current CEO and Founder commented:
“Getting ahead is more important than ever to this generation. Building products that solve your members’ financial needs now and have the potential to grow with them is as important as building a brand that is relatable. We’ve always been committed to providing products that make life better and with this new round of funding we’ll continue to innovate to find more ways to provide value, improve financial outcomes and accelerate the growth of our company and member base.”
“This new generation of customers doesn’t want to bank in physical branches,” said David George, General Partner, Andreessen Horowitz. “We believe there will be a shift in the next 10 years to mobile and consumer-focused banking services powered by innovation in technology, and with Current’s exceptional growth over the past year, they’ve clearly demonstrated they’re at the forefront of this trend. Their product is among the best in the market, and they have proven an ability to reach customers who previously were unserved or underserved by traditional banks. We look forward to supporting Stuart and the team as they continue to build the most relevant banking products and brand for this next gen customer."
FPV invested in 2016 in Current's seed round through an introduction by Expa partner, FPV advisor, and Foursquare co-founder Naveen Selvadurai. Sopp, an early believer in the cryptoasset sector, was exploring utilizing crypto as part of Current's business model at the time. In a Techcrunch interview announcing the Series D he alluded to this early strategy and what's next for the company:
“There’s a ton of value being created [in crypto] and we want to make sure we have this nexus of providing safe, and trustworthy financial services in that world, as well as what we already exist in,” notes Sopp. “And then, lending, credit cards,” he adds, noting how important these moves are “done safely, in a respectful way for our demographic — because traditionally most of our members have a FICO score of 650.”
“A little-known fact is that Current started with Bitcoin wallet addresses and Ripple gateways,” he says. But the team realized the technology was a little too nascent at the time, and moved to mobile banking. “We have this background, and this knowledge of how it all works. Now do we need to build it ourselves? No, I don’t think we need to build it all ourselves. There’s lots of good companies out there,” he says.
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