Reportedly, 18 million people in the UK are struggling to pay their bills but are not yet in arrears – so existing debt solutions are not suitable for them. London-based SuperFi, a debt prevention platform, tackles UK’s growing debt crisis and improves financial well-being for individuals and communities.
Raises pre-seed funding
Now, SuperFi has raised a $1 million pre-seed funding round led by UK seed fund Ascension (that backed RideTandem) and its impact fund, Fair By Design, and includes Force Over Mass, and a number of other prominent investors. The company has also received grant funding from the Greater London Authority as part of the Mayor of London’s Challenge LDN scheme to combat poverty.
The funding allows SuperFi to prototype and test its platform with Councils and Housing Associations across London. It will be used to support authorisation via the FCA’s innovation sandbox and launch partnerships with London boroughs. These initiatives will allow SuperFi to test and refine the platform; bringing debt prevention tools to Londoners for the first time, before it is rolled out across the UK.
SuperFi’s pre-seed funding round was facilitated by Floww, a newly launched fundraising platform, where it surpassed its funding goal in just over 24 hours. SuperFi is the first startup to manage its fundraising on the platform.
Tom Barltrop, co-founder of SuperFi, said, “We believe that debt management should be proactive, not reactive. Our goal is to help millions of people struggling to pay their bills and credit commitments better manage their debt before it becomes a crisis. In doing so, we believe we can help British people during the cost of living crisis – saving businesses and society billions associated with problem debt.”
Emma Steele, Partner at Ascension, added, “We are thrilled to be supporting SuperFi in its mission to tackle the UK’s growing debt crisis and improve financial well-being for individuals and communities. With over £1.6 trillion in personal debt in the UK alone, the scale of the problem is massive, and SuperFi’s innovative platform is uniquely positioned to address it through a partner-based business model that remains on the consumers’ side as the business scales. We look forward to helping the team achieve their vision.”
Martijn De Wever, CEO of Floww, added, “SuperFi’s purpose-driven vision and ambitious team inspired a high level of investor excitement on our platform, which led to a very swift round closure. As the first company to use Floww for fundraising, we were all delighted to see them hit their target and oversubscribe in one day.”
Ollie Purdue, Partner at Antler, comments, “SuperFi represents a new generation of fintech startups building solutions designed to address the significant challenges facing consumers during the cost of living crisis. SuperFi will undoubtedly have a positive impact on society in the UK. We are delighted to have backed the SuperFi team from day zero and this funding round is a testament to their impressive traction and long-term growth potential.”
Supports people during the ‘cost of living’ crisis
SuperFi was founded by Nick Spiller and Tom Barltrop in 2021 in London. They met during an Antler residency in London, and bring together a wealth of expertise from banking and tech startup environments.
SuperFi is the first app to analyse people’s financial and personal situations to recommend and provide access to a comprehensive range of solutions to maximise income, reduce missed payments and prevent problem debt.
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