A contemporary youth program co-created by Frich to help Gen Z have a realistic view of finances | TechCrunch

As a young model, Katrin Kaurov became financially independent at an early age. Aleksandra Medina, whom she met at NYU Abu Dhabi, also learned how to spend money early. The pair joined as students because of what they see as a lack of open discussion space for people their age to have a healthy financial life.

So they joined forces in 2021 to launch Frich based in New York City, a startup that aims to act as a social capital community for the Gen Z community.

The company’s bottom line, they say, is that Gen Z is tired of dishonesty. False images of financial success are displayed everywhere on social media and leave people wondering how they really compare to their peers financially, Kaurov and Medina say.

“We realized that Gen Z doesn’t know what to do with money and we all pretend on social media that we live together, when in reality, we don’t,” Kaurov told TechCrunch in an interview. “Are they really spending too much money or are they really living a luxurious life? We recently heard that there is a sharp divide between what is being shown online, and what banks and financial institutions are offering to Gen Z they actually want. ”

Users of Frich – which stands for “Effing Rich” – have the ability to ask questions anonymously on the app to better understand how their peers are doing financially without feeling competitive. They can also share financial information anonymously to see how they compare to their peers. For example, a college freshman can see what others with similar backgrounds are spending on entertainment, investing, and hiring. Questions that users can ask include, for example, How much do people my age invest? Do my classmates have money?

“I think one of the things that makes Gen Z so different from any other generation is that Gen Zers want to talk a lot about money,” Kaurov said. They want to be open and honest about the truth of what’s really going on like how much people spend, what people’s credit scores are and how much they spend on day one. ”

And for those looking for help improving their rankings, Frich aims to take data collected from users and link it to the right financial models.

“Frich functions primarily as a community-driven financial instrument,” Medina said. “And our personalized approach aims to address industry oversight in Gen Z. We can then increase our understanding of user data and match Gen Zers with the right brands and services.” He also said, their goal is to anticipate their needs before they arise.

The duo launched their app in the summer of 2021 and since then, they’ve grown to over 100,000 Gen Z users nationwide, with core markets in New York, Florida and Texas. Frich is approaching $1 million in annual revenue (ARR) through the B2B subscription model.

Frich makes money by partnering with banks and products such as a credit builder or lifestyle brand, and charging them a flat fee to be on their platform. The fee varies by partner.

Interestingly, the company has taken an old-school approach to marketing by visiting companies around the country and using ambassadors to present its product without promoting the app on digital platforms like TikTok.

Today, the six startups announced that Frich has raised $2.8 million in seed funding led by Restive Ventures, which included participation from TruStage, K20 and Spartan Innovations. The money so far has been used in part to hire key employees, including a former Bumble employee to lead growth and a former Robinhood employee to work on the product.

Cameron Peake, a partner at Restive Ventures, told TechCrunch that his firm believes Frich “really has their finger on the pulse of how Gen Z thinks and does things around money” and has the opportunity to become a “big” company.

“They’re sending out standard options, for example, to clarify some of them, and that made us very happy,” Peake added. “The consumer market is very broad, it can grow quickly.”

Of course, Frich isn’t the only fintech aiming to serve the broader Gen Z market. In January, Alinea Invest, a fintech app that offers AI-powered wealth management aimed at Gen Z women, raised $ 3.4 million in seed funding before launching an AI assistant that will help users with their investment needs. And Bloom, a zero-commission stock investment tool for young investors, went viral last July, announcing that it had reached 1 million downloads after launching in February 2022. and as of March, Miami-based Onyx Private, a digital bank backed by Y Combinator. which provided banking and investment services for high-net-worth billionaires and Gen Zers, has announced it is winding down its banking operations and focusing on a B2B model.

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