Banking start-up Hatch rebrands as Nearside, raises $58m in Series B
Challenger banking service Nearside (formerly Hatch) has raised $58 million in a Series B funding round led by Valar Ventures.
The Nearside team. Image source: Nearside.
Existing investors Kleiner Perkins, Foundation Capital, and Abstract Ventures also participated, as well as new investors Michael Ovitz, Jim Breyer, Kevin Hartz, and Ryan Petersen, among others.
The company last raised $14 million in a Series A round in 2020.
Founded in 2019 and based in San Francisco, Nearside says it focuses on “the smallest of the small businesses”, catering to “the 60 million hard working sole proprietors, solopreneurs, freelancers, contractors, and gigsters who work and build their local communities in the United States”.
Nearside is a new brand as the company changed its name from Hatch earlier this month. “This name is inspired by our commitment to supporting our customers – and to always be by their side through the ups and downs of building a business,” explains Thomson Nguyen, founder and CEO.
Nearside offers a free small business checking account that comes with a debit card. The pricing is “simple and transparent”, Nguyen states. There are no monthly fees, overdraft fees, or ATM fees, and there is an unlimited 1% cashback reward programme “that is unequalled in the banking sector”.
Next year, the company will move into term loans and other software services like Sprout (business registration). It will also continue to grow its rewards programme.
“By offering top-tier rewards to people who may not have access to credit cards with rewards, we’re democratising access to fair financial services and helping our customers save and reinvest the money back into their business,” Nguyen says. “For new businesses, cash flow is everything and every dollar counts.”
