Why We Invested in Linker Finance
We are thrilled to announce our investment in Linker Finance. Linker Finance brings a reimagined, digital banking experience to community banks throughout the U.S. The company recently announced its oversubscribed $3.7M seed round led by Chingona Ventures and TenOneTen Ventures with participation from Audaz Capital, Techstars, Bank of Brodhead, Angeles Investors, and Commerce Ventures.
The Story Behind Linker Finance
Linker Finance is led by CEO Jorge Garcia, CPO Claudia Bardales, and President Alejandro Corpeño. The trio previously worked together at Hello Iconic, a software development and design company that has built high-performing web and mobile apps for companies like Disney, NBC Universal, and The Change Company.
After serving as Hello Iconic’s co-founder and CTO for over 7 years, Jorge embarked on building Linker Finance, a digital banking platform for community banks. Jorge was inspired to start the company after being denied a line of credit from a traditional bank — an unfair but common reality for many small business owners, especially for women or individuals of color. Because of this, he turned to his local community bank where he found an amazing banking relationship. On the flipside, his digital banking experience with the institution was subpar.
As reflected in Jorge’s own story, community banks are small but mighty. They are the leading providers of banking services in rural communities and play a crucial role in supplying credit to agricultural and commercial borrowers, especially during times of economic hardship. For example, community banks’ business lending remained stable during the global financial crisis. They also served an important function in distributing emergency relief funds during the COVID-19 pandemic, originating 88% of loans funded through the Paycheck Protection Program (PPP). With 50,000 branch locations nationwide, community banks provide 80% of agricultural loans, 60% of small business loans, and $3.8 trillion in loans to local consumers. Because of the specialized role that these institutions play in the economy, the team behind Linker Finance believes that community banks are here to stay and have the opportunity to regain control of their digital banking experience to keep up with larger financial institutions, neobanks, and other fintech companies.
Today, Linker Finance offers a secure, holistic mobile and online digital banking platform that is easy for community banks to integrate, customize, and deploy. Its low-code, no-code platform draws inspiration from user-friendly platforms like Webflow and Zapier. The platform seamlessly allows bank customers to access their consumer and business accounts under one login and offers several other features such as account opening and credit card management while ensuring security and compliance. In addition, Linker Finance provides its customers with a marketplace of over 30 integrations, white-labeled brand customization, and consumer data and analytics. The company already serves a number of financial institutions including community banks and fintech companies. With this fundraise, Linker Finance will continue product development — specifically for business and commercial banking — and plans to release a self-service version of the platform. Looking ahead, the company will expand its offerings to credit unions and regional banks.
Why We Invested
At Chingona Ventures, we are excited about Linker Finance’s mission to bring neobank-like technology and customer experience to community banks. Linker Finance aligns with Chingona Ventures’ investment thesis as an early-stage B2B financial technology company. We are thrilled to have the company join our robust portfolio of fintech investments, including companies such as Boom, Kudos, and Scout. We have high conviction in Jorge Garcia as the company’s CEO given his extensive entrepreneurial background and his passion for financial innovation.
We would like to congratulate Jorge, Claudia, Alejandro, and the entire team at Linker Finance on a successful raise! We look forward to joining Linker’s Board and supporting the company as it works to empower community banks with a digital platform. If you are a leader at a community bank, credit union, or regional bank looking to implement a digital banking experience for your customers, connect with Linker Finance today!
If you’re a fintech founder raising a pre-seed or seed round, we’d love to learn more about your business! To be considered, please fill out this form.
