Earny, the refunds-focused fintech, secures $9m funding
Earny, which uses retailer and credit card price protection policies to claim refunds on users' purchases, has raised $9m. Earny said the money will be used to diversify into the travel industry, including payment protection for hotel bookings. Early already has partnerships with Amazon, Bloomingdale's and Wal-Mart, among others. The COO and co-founder of the Santa Monica-based firm, Dori Yona, said: "We want to focus on brand awareness … these funds will let us make a big marketing push into TV, print [and] advertising." The series A funding was led by Mayfield Fund and takes Earny's total backing to $11.5m.

EXCLUSIVE – The payment protection app Earny announced today it has raised $9 million and wants to use the funds to diversify into the travel vertical.

Based in Santa Monica, Calif., Earny automatically monitors for and claims refunds on past purchases through retailer and credit card price protection policies.

With its new funding, Dori Yona, COO and co-founder of Earny, told Bank Innovation that the company will expand in the travel field. It will start by providing payment protection to hotel bookings early next year and then will gradually diversify in other aspects of the vertical, he said.

The series A funding was led by Mayfield Fund, an early investor in ride-share app Lyft and social-market platform Poshmark. Other investors include Comcast Ventures and Science Inc. This new round brings the company’s total funds to $11.5 million.

“We are very excited about Mayfield because they have a huge history and have built massive companies that changed consumer behavior,” Yona said.

The funds will be also be used to double Earny’s employees to 35 people and to start a major marketing campaign.

“We want to focus on brand awareness,” he said. “These funds will also let us make a big marketing push – TV, print, advertising, and the whole gamut.”

As a part of the deal, Mayfield managing director, Rishi Garg, will join Earny’s board.

So far, Earny has partnered with major retailers including Amazon, Best Buy, Bloomingdale’s, Nordstrom, Costco, Kohl’s and Wal-Mart. It also works with the typical 90-day price protection policies for credit cards like Visa, Mastercard, Chase, Citibank, Bank of America, US Bank, Capital One, Barclays and First Premier Bank.

The app, which is free to download on both Android and Apple, monitors and automatically files for a claim on behalf of its user.

Typically, Earny can secure more than 90% of its claims, he said. Earny shoppers approximately get back 5% of what they spend online on average, Yona said. Some Earny shoppers have gotten back more than $1,600 back in a year, he said.

The company was launched in 2016 after winning Mastercard’s Masters of Code Hackathon. Last May, it raised $1.2 million in seed funding from investors that include Mastercard, Sweet Capital and Science Inc.

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