Exclusive: Climate fintech Future raises $6.5M, buys Fan Rewards
Illustration: Sarah Grillo/Axios
Future, a climate-focused fintech, has raised $6.5 million in new funding and acquired a startup to expand its rewards platform, the company tells Axios exclusively.
Details: The new financing comes from a mix of new and existing investors and was raised in part to acquire Fan Rewards, a Boston-based rewards platform for fans of artists and influencers.
- As part of the acquisition, Fan Rewards founders Kendall Tucker and Mike Garon will join Future as head of product and head of engineering, respectively.
Between the lines: The deal is designed to help Future attract more users to its rewards program, according to Future co-founder and CEO Jean-Louis Warnholz.
- "A big piece of what we are building now is just creating an outrageously rewarding experience for our members," he says.
- "The work Mike and Kendall had done at Fan Rewards was a perfect fit because they've identified novel and interesting ways to reward fans of digital creators."
Context: Future offers a debit card that rewards users when they make low-carbon, eco-friendly purchases — such as EV charging, public transportation, plant-based meat and secondhand clothes — as part of their everyday spending.
- It offers 10% cash back on renewable-energy purchases, partners with eco-friendly brands to offer discounts on their goods, and operates a marketplace of sustainable goods with increased rewards.
- It also provides tools to help users understand their carbon footprint and earn cash for reducing it.
Zoom in: Future developed a data-driven platform on the back end that digitally captures and verifies greener purchases across a variety of merchant codes.
- "There is no payments platform that is purposefully designed to help decarbonize our economy," Warnholz says.
- "To do that right, you have to have a data platform to incorporate carbon, not just as a signal in the payments data, but to be able to identify and reward green choices."
Of note: To date, Future has raised $11 million from investors that include Accomplice, Active Impact Investments, Climate Capital, Techstars, Baratunde Thurston, Raiz Capital and Urban Impact Ventures.
