{"id":1161,"date":"2020-03-10T10:40:41","date_gmt":"2020-03-10T15:40:41","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/northone.com\/blog\/?p=1161"},"modified":"2024-04-29T09:04:26","modified_gmt":"2024-04-29T14:04:26","slug":"were-announcing-a-series-a-round-of-21m-usd-for-northone","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.northone.com\/blog\/northone\/were-announcing-a-series-a-round-of-21m-usd-for-northone","title":{"rendered":"North One Announces $21 Million Series A Round"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

North One is a mobile, tech-powered bank account built for America\u2019s small businesses, freelancers, and startups.<\/em>
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Today, we\u2019re announcing a Series A round of $21M USD for North One<\/a>, led by Shiran Shalev from Battery Ventures, with participation from Redpoint Ventures, and Tom Williams. This round brings us one step closer to fully solving one of the biggest sources of pain for America\u2019s business builders. This Series A round is an important moment for us, but securing funding is not how we define success. For us, there is no finish line. We\u2019re just getting started.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Small businesses matter <\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

There are 30 million small businesses in America. They employ over 50% of the workforce and contribute nearly $6 trillion dollars to the economy each year. They act as a critical training ground for the next generation of great business leaders, and not just those in startups in coastal cities, but those hard at work across the nation. At the same time, they offer disempowered people and communities an opportunity to build a better future for themselves. They are also one of our best shots at reversing the widening income inequality gap that has emerged over the past few decades. Small businesses really do matter. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Every single one of these small businesses needs a bank account but business banking often acts as a hidden tax on small businesses. They lose full days of productivity each month as they wrestle with an experience, bureaucracy, and product that doesn\u2019t consider the downstream work they impose on the business and its back office. They overpay hundreds, sometimes even thousands, of dollars for bank accounts and service packages that they barely use.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

North One is built to save small businesses time and money<\/strong>

Our banks are filled with brilliant people. They\u2019ve had ample opportunity to improve the situation. They haven\u2019t because it hasn\u2019t been a priority for them. It never will be. A small business is too, well… small to matter to them. And so their lack of focus has let this painful status quo live on. Small businesses deserve better. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

We know they\u2019ve been let down by their banks in the past. And so we consider it a privilege to serve them. We take that responsibility seriously. They\u2019ve given us priceless feedback and have let us know their deepest wishes for what a challenger bank like North One could do for them. We come to work ready to earn their trust over and over, every day.
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Businesses need a fundamentally better small business bank account <\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

We started North One to undo this injustice and unleash the potential of small businesses. In so doing, we haven\u2019t only built a small-business focused challenger bank, we\u2019ve built a banking platform that can act as the world-class finance department most small businesses could never afford. 
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At the center of it all is a fundamentally better bank account. North One delivers all the operational banking functionality a business might need (wires, mobile check deposit, ACH, cash deposits) through a mobile app that is designed to be intuitive, simple and delightful. No confusing forms to fill out. No 1-800 numbers to call knowing you\u2019ll be stuck on hold. We give these business builders peace of mind by giving them a bank that solves real pain for them.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Although we\u2019ve only just announced our Series A but we\u2019ve already accomplished so much. 1% of all small businesses that applied for a bank account in the second half of 2019 applied for a North One account. Millions of dollars are spent using North One debit cards every month. And we expect those numbers to keep rising as we open thousands upon thousands of new North One bank accounts each month.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The problem we\u2019re solving is deeply personal<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Eytan<\/span>: I grew up amongst a family of small business owners. I saw first hand the hours a small business owner spends sitting at their dinner table trying to sort through bank statements, tracking down invoices, and close their books each month. It\u2019s no coincidence that North One\u2019s first-ever pitch deck had a picture of my grandfather on the second slide. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Justin<\/span>: I had started my first company at the age of 17 where I found out first hand the burden banking imposes on small businesses. I spent the better part of a decade leading product and growth in a number of hypergrowth startups and saw the same problem hit my teams over and over again. 
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In fact, our whole team knows somebody or is<\/strong> somebody who has been crushed by this burden. Instead of throwing our hands in the air at the status quo, we get to work. It\u2019s in our DNA. We won\u2019t rest until this problem is solved.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Building North One has been a team sport<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

The number of times we\u2019ve heard \u201cyou can\u2019t do that\u201d is staggering. Everybody had 101 reasons as to why North One could not see the light of day. Our team has succeeded in the face of adversity enough times to know that it truly can move mountains. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

We look to the future excited about the possibilities, but deeply grateful and mindful of the road we\u2019ve traveled to date. Thank you to:<\/p>\n\n\n\n