These 21-year-old dropouts raised $2 million to build Givefront, a fintech company for nonprofits

The past decade has been filled with examples of financial technology that has reshaped how American companies manage money. Brix corporate cards simplified. Automated spending controls ramp. Mercury rebuilt emerging banking. But this wave of financial innovation has largely bypassed a key part of the economy: nonprofits.

giffronta YC-backed startup founded by a 21-year-old Harvard dropout Tengtrakul died and University of California, Berkeley Aidan Sunburyaims to change that. The company is building a financial platform specifically designed for nonprofits, including food banks, animal rescues, NGOs, churches, and homeowner associations.

Nonprofits are born It accounts for approximately 6% of the US GDP and contributes trillions of dollars every year, yet most of them still rely on outdated financial instruments. Givefront believes that modern spend management, compliance and reporting infrastructure – designed specifically for the nonprofit landscape – can unleash significant efficiency gains across the sector.

Before starting Givefront, Tengtrakool piloted a microloan aggregation startup in Nigeria. He later worked within several non-profit organizations while studying computer science and statistics at Harvard, including managing a few organizations himself. At one nonprofit, he helped increase donations to nearly $500,000. These experiences revealed a clear gap that nonprofits face, says Tengtrakul. They have stringent regulatory and reporting requirements, but lack the tools that modern businesses take for granted.

“I’ve always been interested in financial systems, and this business is a natural fit with that,” the CEO told TechCrunch. “While helping run these nonprofits with a few other students, we realized that most of them did not have adequate financial tools to ensure compliance or protect their tax-exempt status. The tools they relied on were completely out of sync with what is considered modern in the startup world.”

Tengtrakool initially built the first version of Givefront to solve these problems internally. What started as a tool for the organizations he worked with soon expanded to include local nonprofits across the country. Over time, the team narrowed its focus to a unified financial platform designed specifically for registered nonprofits, About 1.9 million of them In the United States

Givefront entered Y Combinator Winter 2024 with a broad vision that included banking and accounting. However, the team quickly realized that convincing nonprofits to replace accountants or basic banking relationships required a slow and painful sales process, which heralded the shift to cards and spend management.

“It’s much easier to get an organization to switch out the card they’re using than to replace their entire accounting package,” Tengtrakul said.

Although Givefront offers similar features to corporate spending platforms like Ramp and Brex, its exclusive focus on nonprofits sets it apart.

Nonprofits operate under constraints that most businesses never face. They manage restricted and unrestricted grants, report spending to donors and foundations, track volunteer expenses, and file IRS Form 990 disclosures. Many nonprofits manage dozens of grants at any one time, each with its own spending and reporting rules.

Legacy nonprofit systems like Blackbaud, Sage, and MIP still dominate the market, but they often lack real-time spending controls, modern approval workflows, and seamless integration with the tools that nonprofits increasingly rely on.

Rather than completely replacing these systems, Givefront positions itself as a vertical layer that sits on top of them. The platform integrates with legacy accounting software while adding nonprofit spending controls, audit receipt capture, grant-based budgeting, and automated reporting.

“Many of the workflows we are building are deeply related to how this part of the economy works,” Tengtrakul said. “Our workflow and integrations are a 10x improvement over traditional enterprise or spend management tools.”

Givefront generates revenue from card exchanges and subscriptions associated with its bill payment feature. Over time, Givefront plans to increase revenue by launching adjacent products, including payroll, banking, budgeting, and possibly investment and endowment management.

Since launching its cards nearly six months ago, Givefront has joined hundreds of organizations and reported more than 200% monthly growth in revenue and total payment volume. The company expects to serve about 1,000 nonprofit organizations by the end of the year, with a long-term goal of reaching 5,000 organizations by the middle of next year.

The youth of the team, which also includes a 17-year-old founding engineer, has been both an advantage and a challenge so far, says Tengtrakul. Some nonprofit leaders find the age of the team refreshing, while others are hesitant to trust the financial infrastructure of such a young group.

He says churches and religious organizations have led the strongest adoptions. Many rely on volunteer treasurers rather than full-time finance staff, and Givefront’s automation significantly reduces the operational burden.

The company recently closed a $2 million round, led by Script Capital with participation from Y Combinator, C3 Ventures, Phoenix Fund and angels, including the CEOs of Chariot and Wealthfront. The initial investment will help the company expand distribution, grow its team, and expand its card and bill payment offerings.