Cushion, a fintech startup that described itself because the “Plaid for purchase now, pay later (BNPL),” has shut down.
On Thursday, founder and CEO Paul Kesserwani posted on LinkedIn concerning the choice to wind down the corporate on the finish of 2024.
Within the submit, Kesserwani mentioned that “regardless of bringing a number of new fintech merchandise to market,” Cushion “didn’t attain the dimensions wanted to maintain the enterprise.”
Based in late 2016, San Francisco-based Cushion had raised a complete of $21.6 million from traders similar to Afore Capital, Flourish Ventures, Vestigo Ventures, Higher Tomorrow Ventures, and 500 International.
Its final publicly introduced elevate was in Might, 2022 when it closed a $12 million Series A led by Afore Capital. Its post-money valuation in 2022 was $82.4 million, in accordance with PitchBook.
Kesserwani didn’t instantly reply to TechCrunch’s request for remark.
Cushion provided a shopper app that sucked within the transaction historical past from its customers’ financial institution accounts, decided what charges had been assessed after which performed negotiations on their behalf to get a refund. It was designed, Kesserwani told TechCrunch in 2019, to be incentive-aligned with customers by solely taking a fee on any returned money.
Kesserwani acquired the concept for Cushion after leaving his job at Twitter. Whereas taking a while off to consider what he wished to do subsequent, he was serving to his mother and father handle their financial institution accounts whereas they had been touring for work in Lebanon. As a result of financial institution safety insurance policies, his mother and father weren’t in a position to log into their accounts from Lebanon, and finally, they confronted a mountain of banking charges as their accounts went unattended. As Kesserwani investigated, he turned to his personal accounts, and realized he had additionally been paying charges to the tune of $400 that he had no reminiscence of agreeing to.
In Thursday’s LinkedIn submit, Kesserwani mentioned that Cushion had automated financial institution price negotiation and reached $3 million ARR in 10 months and processed over $300 million in BNPL loans. He added that the corporate had onboarded over 1 million customers over time, with greater than 200,000 paying clients.
Wrote Kesserwani: “I gave Cushion all the things I had for 8+ years. Whereas the result wasn’t what we hoped for, we constructed one thing that moved the business ahead — and I’m pleased with that. As for me, I’m excited for what’s subsequent.”
Knowledge means that 2025 is anticipated to be another brutal year for startup shutdowns. In late December, one other fintech — Bench — shut down abruptly solely to be acquired days later.
