Givefront, a Y Combinator-backed startup, is building a financial platform tailored specifically to nonprofits, aiming to modernize how organizations in the sector manage spending, compliance, and reporting. The company is positioning itself to address a segment of the U.S. economy that contributes roughly 6 percent of GDP but has largely been left out of recent fintech innovation.
Founders And Origins Of The Company
Givefront was founded by Matt Tengtrakool, a 21-year-old Harvard dropout, and Aidan Sunbury of the University of California, Berkeley. Tengtrakool studied computer science and statistics at Harvard before leaving to work full time on the startup.
Before Givefront, Tengtrakool experimented with a microloan aggregation startup in Nigeria. He later worked within several nonprofit organizations while still a student, including running a few himself. At one organization, he helped increase donations to nearly $500,000. Through those experiences, he said he repeatedly encountered the same problem: nonprofits face strict regulatory and reporting requirements but rely on outdated financial tools.
Tengtrakool told TechCrunch that while running nonprofits alongside other students, the group realized most organizations lacked modern systems to manage compliance or protect their tax-exempt status. He said the financial tools nonprofits relied on were misaligned with what is standard in the startup ecosystem.
Market Focus And Early Product Direction
What began as internal tooling for organizations Tengtrakool worked with expanded into a broader platform serving nonprofits across the country. Over time, the company narrowed its focus to a unified financial system designed exclusively for registered nonprofit organizations, of which there are about 1.9 million in the United States.
Givefront entered Y Combinator’s Winter 2024 batch with a broad plan covering banking and accounting. The team later shifted strategy after learning that replacing accountants or core banking relationships involved long sales cycles. Tengtrakool said it proved far easier to persuade nonprofits to switch payment cards than to overhaul their entire financial stack.
Nonprofit-Specific Constraints And Platform Design
Although Givefront offers features similar to corporate spend platforms such as Ramp and Brex, its design centers on the operational realities of nonprofits. These organizations often manage restricted and unrestricted grants, report spending to donors and foundations, track volunteer expenses, and file IRS Form 990 disclosures.
Many nonprofits manage multiple grants simultaneously, each with its own spending limits and reporting rules. Legacy systems like Blackbaud, Sage, and MIP remain widely used but often lack real-time spend controls, modern approval workflows, and integrations with newer software.
Rather than replacing those systems, Givefront integrates with them. The platform adds nonprofit-focused controls, including grant-based budgeting, receipt capture for audits, automated reporting, and approval workflows layered on top of existing accounting software.
Tengtrakool said the workflows and integrations are built specifically for how nonprofits operate and offer significant improvements compared to general-purpose corporate spend tools.
Revenue Model And Growth Metrics
Givefront generates revenue through card interchange fees and subscriptions tied to its bill pay feature. The company plans to introduce additional products over time, including payroll, banking, budgeting, and potentially investment and endowment management.
Since launching its card product about six months ago, Givefront has onboarded hundreds of organizations. The company reports more than 200 percent month-over-month growth in revenue and total payment volume. It expects to serve roughly 1,000 nonprofits by the end of the year and aims to reach 5,000 organizations by the middle of next year.
Adoption Patterns And Team Dynamics
Tengtrakool said the team’s age has influenced adoption in different ways. Some nonprofit leaders see the youth of the founding team, which includes a 17-year-old founding engineer, as a positive signal. Others are more hesitant to trust core financial infrastructure to such a young group.
Churches and religious organizations have shown the strongest adoption so far. Tengtrakool said many of these groups rely on volunteer treasurers rather than full-time finance staff, making automation especially valuable in reducing administrative workload.
Funding And Next Steps
Givefront recently raised a $2 million seed round led by Script Capital. The round included participation from Y Combinator, C3 Ventures, Phoenix Fund, and angel investors, including the chief executives of Chariot and Wealthfront.
The company said the funding will be used to expand distribution, grow the team, and further develop its card and bill pay products.
Featured image credits: Flickr
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