New Zealand-based fintech company Emerge has announced that it secured approximately USD 7.3 million in a Series A funding round. Led by Altered Capital, the funding round also saw participation from Icehouse Ventures, K1W1, and NZ Fintech Fund, as well as US VC Hard Yaka.

The newly obtained capital is set to allow Emerge to scale its marketing, sales, and product hires, and to advance its business-focused go-to-market strategy, which includes providing business banking for startups. When commenting on the announcement, representatives from Emerge underlined that the company plans to leverage the funds to expand its impact and support New Zealand-based companies in growing their operations and doing more with their money. Business accounts for startups Before focusing their efforts on business banking, Emerge’s founders launched a children’s financial literacy app called SquareOne.

The shift took place in January 2024, with the company moving from teaching children about money to providing services to SMEs and becoming a neobank. At that time, Emerge planned to go live with an SME proposition by the end of February to early March 2024 and then expand into personal accounts in the third quarter of 2024. SquareOne was set to remain as a kids’ app brand. Currently, as part of its development strategy, the company works towards supporting Kiwi businesses in optimising and augmenting their operations by enabling them to open as many Emerge accounts as they need, with features that can meet their demands, needs, and preferences, as well as team cards.

Despite not being a bank yet, the company launched business accounts and cards and developed EmergePay, which converts a smartphone into a payment terminal. Emerge allows businesses to open an Emerge account instantly in-app and then generate new cards with centralised limits, controls, and real-time notifications. Moreover, Emerge underlined its commitment to further improving the capabilities of a bank in terms of payment acceptance, and accounting tools, among others.

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