NEW YORK–(BUSINESS WIRE)–Zurp, a fintech platform rethinking the creator/fan dynamic, today announced its pre-seed capital raise of $5M with participation from New Form, MAGIC Fund, Launchpad VC, OVO Fund, Darling Ventures and Animal Capital. Strategic investors who joined the round include Scott Belsky, Siqi Chen, Kendrick Nguyen, Michael Brandt, David Weisburd, Amy Wu, Julia Lipton, Baron Davis, Dhani Jones, Nik Sharma, Joshua Cohen, Bobby Goodlatte, Craig Clemens, Lenny Rachitsky, Niklas Jansen and Dan Becker.
Founded in 2022 by seasoned entrepreneurs Troy Osinoff, Michael Lisovetsky and Ashish Pandhi, Zurp was created to be the first financial platform offering a rewards program rooted in unique experiences with influencers of all kinds. The concept behind Zurp is to provide consumers with a means to support their favorite creators or causes without changing daily spending habits, and creators with a new way to reward and interact with fans that creates recurring revenue without requiring additional spend from their fans. Overall, Zurp is building a unique and mutually beneficial – both personally and financially – relationship between fans and influencers.
“Everyone has their favorite creators whose content they love to watch and follow. They want to feel like they’re a part of the creator’s life, which has typically been a one-way street until now,” said Troy Osinoff, co-CEO of Zurp. “Zurp is giving creators an opportunity to give back to their followers by offering exclusive experiences essentially for free, while still creating a new stream of income. Financial literacy is an important topic across all generations, especially now with the economy shifting. Zurp’s goal is to help users improve their personal finances and help creators strengthen their relationships with their followers in a fun, engaging way where everyone wins.”
Zurp’s first product will be the Zurp Credit Card, which will be launching in Q1 2023 in partnership with Mastercard and sponsored by First Pryority Bank, Member FDIC. Creators who participate in the Zurp credit card program will each have their own card that their fans can sign up for and will receive a percentage of the purchases made with each card from the merchant. Once fans receive their cards, they will start earning points each time it’s used, which they can then redeem towards exclusive experiences with their chosen creator. The Zurp credit card functions as a secured card, which prevents overdrafting or going into debt. This offers Gen Z a safer alternative and first-of-its-kind, experience-driven alternative to traditional reward credit cards.
Through the credit card, creators will have access to valuable fan spending insights, and can unlock new opportunities for sponsorship deals. Launch partners for the initial rollout of the credit card will be with popular TikTok, YouTube and e-gaming personalities, though Zurp’s pipeline for future creator partners spans athletes, record labels, charities and more, who collectively have 1B followers on social media.
“We live in the era of the creator and the most important thing to them is their followers. Zurp has uncovered a new means for creators to give back to their followers in a way that promotes financial literacy and strengthens the relationship through access to exclusive experiences,” said Kendrick Nguyen, founder of Republic and strategic investor in Zurp. “Through Zurp, the relationship between followers and creators becomes mutually beneficial, a dynamic that hasn’t existed until now, making a compelling case to sign up for their program – especially among younger generations.”
“The Zurp team has identified a compelling gap in the market. After a proliferation of neobanks and creator monetization tools, which have almost entirely fallen flat, Zurp’s experience and creator platform credit card business has a huge opportunity to succeed,” said Marshall Sandman, Managing Partner at Animal Capital. “We couldn’t be more excited to support the team and the idea!”
With the pre-seed investment, Zurp plans to continue building out their creator partnerships and expand the company’s offerings to include banking options, as well as different tiers of credit cards. Zurp is on a mission to become the first and only credit card and bank for unique experiences that consumers cannot buy.
“Zurp is changing the game when it comes to incentivizing younger generations to create positive financial habits,” said Lenny Rachitsky, host of Lenny’s Podcast and strategic investor in Zurp. “Zurp helps you support and interact with creators you love, in a really innovative and clever way.”
To learn more about Zurp, please visit: https://www.zurp.com/
About Zurp:
Zurp is a fintech platform built for superfans. Instead of a traditional reward program, Zurp offers exclusive experiences with cardholders’ favorite influencers. Through the Zurp platform, fans can support their favorite influencers without changing their daily spending habits. Influencers can build recurring revenue without asking fans to spend extra on paid subscriptions or exclusive access to content or events. Zurp offers a new way for fans and influencers to interact that was never before possible.
