Oxygen, a neobank for freelancers and small businesses, in talks to raise funds at over $500 million valuation – TechCrunch

Oxygen, a startup that’s bringing digital banking services to freelancers and micro-and small-sized businesses, is in talks to boost a brand new spherical at a valuation of over $500 million, two sources accustomed to the matter instructed me.

The San Francisco-headquartered agency is in superior phases of talks to boost about $70 million, the sources mentioned. London-based Tribe Ventures is in talks to steer the Oxygen’s Sequence B spherical, the sources added, requesting anonymity as the small print are personal.

Banks within the U.S. — and elsewhere — have historically refused to serve people and not using a conventional job and a constant wage move.

Hussein Ahmed, who beforehand labored at Amazon, confronted this situation himself when he began to work as a contract advisor for different startups. “That’s after I stumbled upon the market section we’re serving at this time,” he mentioned in a podcast final yr. Ahmed was working from a WeWork and realized that “everybody round me from photographers to actual property brokers to accountants, have been going through the identical drawback.”

It was then when Ahmed began Oxygen. The startup provides customers and small companies accounts at zero month-to-month payment. These accounts, that are FDIC insured, may be operated and not using a minimal steadiness and include a Visa debit card.

The startup, which counts Y Combinator and Runa Capital amongst its backers, has amassed over 600,000 clients.

Oxygen declined to touch upon the fundraise talks, however by way of a spokesperson Ahmed mentioned the startup has seen a “huge development in 2021,” and elevated its income by 10 instances this yr. “We’re having steady conversations about tips on how to finest fund our future plans and can remark once we can.”