Calgary-based FinTech startup Flahmingo raised $1.88 million CAD in its pre-seed funding round in the last week of September.
According to the startup, it was an oversubscribed funding round that saw the participation of Kevin Sandhu, CEO and founder of Control; Austin Hankwitz, a FinTech entrepreneur; Hanif Joshaghani, CEO and co-founder of Symend; and Open People Network, a Toronto-based angel investor group.
“People are led to believe they need thousands of dollars to start investing, but that’s just not the case”
The new capital is earmarked for growth, said Flahmingo’s spokesperson, as the company looks to hire more people for product and technology marketing as well as customer success teams. Flahmingo is also looking to further bolster its marketing efforts from now until its product launch next year.
Founded in 2020 by co-founders Taran Singh Kainth, Gio Moros, and Kunal Seth, Flahmingo is a commission-free fractional investment app that utilizes an automated Pies and Slices model, which the company claims is the first of its kind in Canada. With the Flahmingo app, users can fund their account with scheduled deposits, automatic roundups, and one-time deposits.
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Flahmingo said the “pies” in its Pies and Slices model can be interpreted as categories such as tech pie, fashion pie, or summer travel pie. Each pie is made up of slices where each slice represents a publicly-traded company or ETFs personally hand-picked by the user.
“People are led to believe they need thousands of dollars to start investing, but that’s just not the case,” Seth said. “Flahmingo is changing the narrative and letting Canadians know that they only need $1 to start.”
A 2020 survey by Finder claimed only about 39 percent of Canadians, or approximately 12.3 million Canadian adults, use a stock trading app.
However, the report also states that interest in stock trading in Canada is on the rise, seeing a major jump over the last year, which was accelerated by the pandemic.
By Q1 2022, Flahmingo will be launching its trading app as well as Flahmingo Central app, the latter a gamified experience where users can learn more about the stock market through free, short educational videos.
