gini, a Hong Kong-based fintech that specializes in smart spending-tracking, announced on Thursday it raised $1.6 million through its seed funding round, which involved participation from Mountain Partners, Treuenburg Group, Global Technology Alliance (GTA), Dr. Cornelius Boersch, the European Investment Fund (backed by EIB), and Hong Kong-based Vectr Ventures.
gini, which was founded in 2016, is a global smart-spending tracker that “empowers” users to take control of their personal finances. The company explained:
“Get all your money and currencies around the world, in one spot, and say goodbye to the days of manual input and multiple logins. gini empowers you to handle your finances effortlessly. With smart insights from your accounts and cards, get a clearer overview of your money’s ins and outs and stay up to date with automatic refresh.”
The co-founders of gini, CEO Raymond Wyand and COO Victor Lang reported that the funding will support a global rollout plan, with the aim to be compatible with more than 3,000 overseas banks in 60 countries by the second half of 2019, starting with over 70 banks throughout various countries, including Hong Kong, France, India, Switzerland, Singapore, and the UK currently available. Wyand stated:
“We are Hong Kong based, but the plan was never to launch an app only for the Hong Kongmarket. We live in a globalised world. Ultimately, our goal is to build a truly worldwide financial marketplace, to serve not just a user’s home market but make managing money across markets accessible and easy for anyone to do. This new seed round allows us to start making that vision a reality, and we have strong new partners who share our passion and believe in our vision for what gini can do to disrupt the global personal finances industry more broadly, and make financial freedom accessible to everyone around the world.
Marco Stutz, Director at Mountain Partners, then added:
“gini’s business model is proven to be successful in the US and Europe and we’re proud to welcome gini in our portfolio, as part of our recent expansion to Hong Kong. We’re excited to see the app venturing outside of Hong Kong and capitalizing on the many opportunities in both developed and emerging markets. Our global network and strong presence in Southeast Asia, Europe, and Latin America can help the brand tap into new markets and capture growth opportunities, early on.”