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Oxygen, a startup that’s bringing digital banking providers to freelancers and micro- and small-sized companies, is in talks to lift a brand new spherical at a valuation of over $500 million, two sources aware of the matter instructed me.
The San Francisco-headquartered agency is in superior phases of talks to lift about $70 million, the sources stated. London-based Tribe Ventures is in talks to steer Oxygen’s Collection B spherical, the sources added, requesting anonymity as a result of the small print are non-public.
Banks within the U.S. — and elsewhere — have historically refused to serve people with no conventional job and a constant wage stream.
Hussein Ahmed, who beforehand labored at Amazon, confronted this situation himself when he began to work as a contract guide for different startups. “That’s after I stumbled upon the market phase we’re serving immediately,” he stated in a podcast final 12 months. Ahmed was working from a WeWork and realized that “everybody round me, from photographers to actual property brokers to accountants, had been going through the identical drawback.”
It was then when Ahmed began Oxygen. The startup provides customers and small companies accounts at zero month-to-month payment. These accounts, that are FDIC insured, will be operated with no minimal steadiness and include a Visa debit card.
The startup, which counts Y Combinator and Runa Capital amongst its backers, has amassed over 600,000 clients.
Oxygen declined to touch upon the fundraise talks, however by means of a spokesperson Ahmed stated the startup has seen a “huge development in 2021,” and elevated its income by 10 occasions this 12 months. “We’re having steady conversations about how you can greatest fund our future plans and can remark once we can.”
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