Kiwi fintech Emerge cashes in NZ$12 million Series A for challenger bank plans

New Zealand fintech Emerge has raised $12 million in a Series A, amid hopes to build NZ’s first challenger bank.

The round was led by Altered Capital with support from Icehouse Ventures, K1W1 and NZ Fintech Fund, plus US VC Hard Yaka.

It’s the second investment for Altered Capital, an early investors in UK challenger bank Starling.

The funds are for marketing, sales and product hires, as well as the ramp up of the startup’s business-focused go-to-market strategy, which includes offering banking for startups.

Cofounders Jamie Jermain and Jovan Pavlicevic previously launched the children’s financial literacy app SquareOne before turning their attention to business banking.

“Emerge was built to help Kiwi businesses do more, faster, better. In just a few minutes, you’ve opened as many Emerge accounts as you need, with features better than the banks, and team cards ready to go,” Pavlicevic said

Against the months of work and paper forms needed in applying for a legacy bank account, we’re seeing very fast customer love – and we’re just getting started.”

While not yet a bank, the app-based alternative has already launched business accounts and cards, and has developed EmergePay, which turns a smartphone into a payment terminal.

Jermain said Emerge’s ambition is to redefine what a bank can be in terms of payment acceptance, accounting tools and more.

“We’ve built the industry’s simplest offering. No branch visits and no paperwork are needed thanks to a fully digitised onboarding process,” he said.

“Feedback from customers has been overwhelmingly positive. They love how fast, easy, and transparent everything is, and the time and money they save which goes back into their business – so now it’s time to share this with even more of the country.”

A business can open an Emerge account instantly in-app, then generate new cards in an instant with centralised limits, controls, and real-time notifications.

“Emerge is so much more than just better business accounts – it’s a gateway to smarter, faster business operations,” Pavlicevic said.

“With this new capital, we’re excited to really expand our impact and keep helping NZ do more with money.”