Less than two years after raising $80 million in Series D, the automated debt manager Tally was closed after it failed to lift more funding in a difficult environment for fintech startups.
Founder and CEO Jason Brown he said in Post on LinkedIn“We have made the difficult and sad decision to close Tally. This was not the outcome we had hoped for, but after considering all options, we were unable to secure the necessary funds to continue operations.”
The San Francisco-based startup helped people manage and repay their bank card debt.
In October 2022, Tally raised $80 million in Series D led by Sway Projects at a post-money valuation of $855 million. Other investors in this round include: Andreessen Horowitz, Cowboy ventures 1, Little Perkins AND Shasta Enterprises.
Founded in 2015, the company has collected, based on Crunchbase data.
The Slow Decline of Financial Services
Given the current market environment, Tally’s inability to lift latest financing is common.
Venture capital funding for private firms in financial services — the leading sector for VC investment — has slowed significantly over the past few quarters. Financial services firms raised $9.7 billion in the second quarter of 2024, based on Crunchbase data — up barely each year-over-year and quarter-over-quarter, but down 75% from the market peak in Q2 2021. More than $40 billion was invested in the quarter.
For the past five quarters, funding for financial services firms has been below $10 billion in each quarter, based on Crunchbase data. Those five quarters represent the lowest funding amounts for the sector since Q1 2017.