Lili Raises $55M Series B To Support Growing Number of Freelancers

Israeli startup Lili, the mobile banking service for US freelancers, has raised a $55 million Series B round, led by California-based fintech venture capital firm Group 11, the company announced on Tuesday.

Other notable investors included Target Global and AltaIR, as well as existing investors.

The round brings the company’s total financing to $80 million “following a record year of growth and revenue,” the company said.

The Israeli-founded, New York-based banking app is spearheaded by finance serial entrepreneur Lilac Bar David, the company’s CEO. The company aims to be the leading banking app and finance tool for freelancers and gig-economy workers. Lili has doubled its account base in the past six months as more users pursue new, entrepreneurial endeavors and use the company as a reliable resource. The company offers relevant features such as expense management, tax preparation, and no-fee accounts.

The $55 million in new capital will allow Lili to expand the platform to address existing pain points for freelancers with new features related to invoice and payment management, as well as expanding into credit products. 

The company is also introducing several new features, like Personalized Tax Buckets, to help freelancers and small business owners track their taxes and put away a certain percentage of deposits. The company also provides an Emergency Bucket where users can set aside a set amount regularly for an emergency fund instead of opening a separate savings account. Freelancers can take advantage of existing features like built-in real-time expense management and net income and work income reports automatically generated with the Lili mobile app.

“Becoming an entrepreneur or freelancer — your own boss — is one of the most exciting life decisions you can make,” said Lilac Bar David, CEO of Lili. “We’ve created the tools you need to spend more time building your venture and less time on things that historically your employer would handle, like sorting expenses, managing financials, and filing taxes.” 

Bar David said she expects the freelance economy to grow to more than 50 percent of the population by the end of 2021. In less than six months, Lili has doubled its account base during the COVID-19 pandemic. Lili’s popularity exploded across multiple freelancer communities.

“Lili is currently the only fintech platform designed to address the needs of this rapidly growing sector of entrepreneurs,” said Dovi Frances, founding partner of Group 11. “We anticipate the freelancer economy will continue to robustly grow well beyond the pandemic tailwinds. Lili is poised to see exponential growth by continuing to offer this demographic essential, effective, and intuitive tools to manage what was previously an extremely complex and inefficient way of doing business.”