Rewards credit card startup Yonder has raised £23.4 million in new funding led by early backer in Revolut and Canva – Dan Jones through Repeat (formally Jigsaw), Gareth Jefferies through RTP Global with support from Remus Brett through Latitude, the sister fund of LocalGlobe.
The raise is a significant up-round, resulting in a post-money valuation in excess of £100 million. This follows the Series A round of £12.5 million in equity and £50 million in debt secured last year.
Funds utilisation
The new investment will fund Yonder’s ambitious product, expansion and hiring plans, as it focuses on becoming the go-to rewards platform for travel, socialising and city exploration.
These include proprietary travel benefits such as Fights and Stays which allow members to use points towards flights and hotels around the world, expansion into Europe and other international markets, and some significant new product developments that align with its mission to provide unparalleled financial access and seamless cash flow management.
Currently, the Yonder team has 45 members, but the company is looking to increase its headcount to support its growth plans.
Idea behind Yonder
The founders saw a gap in the market for a credit card that could empower young professionals to achieve their financial goals. They realised that many traditional lenders were ignoring or rejecting customers who had unconventional income streams, such as freelancers, gig workers, and students. They also noticed that most credit cards offered generic rewards that did not match the lifestyle preferences of their target audience.
That’s when Tim Chong joined with his two co-founders and fellow ClearScore alumni Theso Jivajirajah and Harry Jell in 2021 to create Yonder. The company’s mission is to completely rebuild consumer relationships with credit cards. The company encourages responsible use of credit that helps their members build towards better financial futures.
What does Yonder do?
Yonder offers monthly-changing rewards across dining and drinking, entertainment, lifestyle, online and a particular emphasis on travel, including the ability to use points towards flights with any airline, to any destination, at any time. It helps young people to unlock memorable experiences in their city and beyond.
Yonder is a platform that offers customers a high rate of return on their spending, with points that can be redeemed at selected partners around London. It lets customers earn 1 point for every £1 they spend, and up to 5 points per £1 at Yonder partners. Each point is worth approximately 2.5p of value, so spending £1000 can earn £25 to spend on a Yonder experience.
As per the company, it is growing at a rate of 3x YoY, with members having spent almost £200 million and visiting Yonder’s Experience partners more than 60,000 times since launch.
Tim Chong, Yonder’s CEO and co-founder said: “Since our Series A raise we’ve grown steadily as interest in Yonder’s offering for young people has snowballed. We’ve capitalised on our momentum to raise this significant funding round, which will help to fund some monumental milestones in Yonder’s journey. Securing this funding in the current climate is an incredible achievement for us and signals an exciting time in our journey. We’re delighted to be backed by some brilliant investors who have once again seen and believed in our vision.”
Dan Jones, founder and managing partner at Repeat (formerly Jigsaw) said: “Over the years we have backed a number of billion+ fintech companies at their early stages of growth where the differentiation was driven largely by frictionless UX and better service delivery of traditional products. Yonder builds on this with a new category of credit card offering specifically for the Millennial & Gen Z community – a huge segment of the market largely ignored by existing products. The team’s impressive traction and deep fintech expertise makes us believe Yonder will lead the way in the next generation of consumer fintechs.”
