Fintech Upstreet throws in the towel
Upstreet, a local fintech that rewards shoppers with fractional shares when buying everyday items, has shut shop 17 months after it raised $3 million from investors including Wattle Hill founder Albert Tse.
Sabine Tejerina, Upstreet co-founder. Jeremy Piper
“After four years in operations, I would like to inform you that we have taken the difficult decision to close down Upstreet,” husband and wife co-founders Christian Eckleman and Sabine Tejerina said in a customer email seen by Street Talk.
“We will stop promoting and distributing the fund and initiate steps to wind-up the Upstreet fund.”
Upstreet’s latest funding round was led by Albert Tse, founder of Wattle Hill Capital, which owns Capilano Honey. Tse was also an early backer of Bubs infant formula group.
Other new investors included Kelly+Partners Investment Office, partners from McKinsey & Co; entrepreneur and Mad Paws CEO Justus Hammer; Ominlab Media executive chairman Christopher Mapp and Bell Potter’s equity capital markets boss Hugh Robertson.
The start-up was born out of the Antler venture capital accelerator program and its public launch bankrolled by Antler, Spring Capital and Black Nova Group. The app allows shoppers to receive a percentage of their transition value back in the form of fractional shares in the company they purchased from.
For every transaction an Upstreet app user makes in meal kits retailer Marley Spoon, for example, they will earn 2 per cent of the value in shares in the company as well as $45 worth of fractional equities as a sign-up bonus.
Upstreet has more than 300 Australian and international brands on the platform, including ASX-listed companies such as Baby Bunting, Kogan and Myer. It also launched an employee-ownership product to enable the transfer of fractional shares between companies and their staff.
Its back end is powered by investment administrator Cache Invest which facilitates the fractional shares.
Introducing your Newsfeed
Follow the topics, people and companies that matter to you.
Find out more