Highline secures $13m in Series A funding

By Edlyn Cardoza

Highline Technologies, the payments FinTech that unlocks payroll-linked lending and billpay, announced that it has successfully raised $13 million in Series A funding. The round was led by Jump Capital, Costanoa Ventures, Foundation Capital and other investors.

“When speaking to lenders, we heard a consistent refrain – they were all aware that connecting to borrowers’ payroll would drastically reduce defaults and materially improve their competitive positions,” shared Yelena Shkolnik, Partner at Jump Capital. “Most had tried and failed to leverage deductions, challenged to compliantly manage the funds flow, or offer adequate employer coverage. In Highline, lenders have the solution they’ve searched for and a powerful end customer experience to transform their lending.”

Founded in 2020, Highline’s payments platform allows consumers to easily automate bill payments directly from their paycheck, helping to avoid missed payments and overdraft fees. Highline’s solution enables consumer lenders to improve portfolio performance, allowing them to expand approvals, reach more potential customers and grow revenue while reducing risk. Additionally, Highline extends payroll-linked lending to any asset class, where historically, it was limited to only personal loans.

After receiving seed funding in 2021, Highline has continued growing rapidly, doubling its team over the first half of 2022 alone. During the past year, Highline completed the build of its platform and launched early clients in the personal loan, lease-to-own, retail and credit card industries. The Series A funding will support Highline’s continued growth, including additions to staff, more strategic partnership opportunities and expanded market adoption of its products and services.

“It has been many years, decades arguably, since U.S. consumer lending has seen an innovation of this magnitude,” said Zach Noorani, Partner at Foundation Capital. “Through Highline’s payment platform, tens of millions of non-prime consumers will eventually be able to access prime-priced financial products. That is hundreds of billions a year in potential savings.”

Payroll-linked lending benefits lenders and consumers alike as it helps reduce missed payments compared to traditional payment methods and can lower default rates by more than half. Automating loan payments through payroll linking improves a consumer’s creditworthiness by 80 to 100 FICO points. It enables lenders to make better, more informed decisions based on a borrower’s true ability to pay and allows them to extend credit to many consumers usually shut out of traditional financial services.

“We are grateful to our investors and excited by the possibilities that this round of funding represents,” said Geoff Brown, Co-founder and CEO of Highline. “It will enable us to continue building a world-class team and connect with a growing number of customers and partners throughout the industry who are equally committed to providing more borrowers with access to the credit and banking services they deserve.”