Announcing our $18M Series A Funding and vision for the future 🚀

We’re thrilled to announce that we’ve raised $18M in Series A funding, led by New York-based FinTech Collective with additional investments from EQT Ventures and Entrée Capital.

With the recent investment, our users and partners can expect our team to build even better products, offer even faster payments, roll out instant bank transfers, provide lightning-fast support and give even more creators and freelancers access to Willa.

And while our year has been incredible, our journey has merely just begun.

From zero to 150,000+ freelancers

Willa was launched in late 2020 to a small group of creators and freelancers with a simple but powerful premise: Money in 30 seconds with zero paperwork.

Since then, we’ve processed millions of dollars in early payouts, and thousands of creators now use our app to get paid for their work. Brands and clients love the experience too, and can pay on their own terms – in 30, 60 or 90 days, at no cost or additional work.

Our users (partners) are social media creators, photographers, filmmakers and influencers. They freelance in their spare time or full-time, and typically pursue a passion centered around exceptional talent.

Like Coco Cuenco, a digital content creator and social media strategist from Los Angeles, with 122k followers, known for her work with Reebok, Aritzia, and actress entrepreneur Shay Mitchell (Pretty Little Liars).

“Willa has allowed me to scale my freelance business, improve my cash flow, and made room to focus on what I’m good at. For me, that’s worth everything.”

Or Marcus Gustafsson– a freelance cinematographer that produces work for leading global brands like Revolve, GQ and ASOS.

“I’ve used Willa for about a year and it’s saved a lot of my time and headaches from chasing unpaid invoices. The best part is that I get paid immediately every single time, allowing me to grow my production business.”

We’ve been fortunate to hear hundreds of stories similar to these, from some of the most talented and influential creators and freelancers in the world – and the Willa waitlist has consequently grown to more than 150,000+ freelancers in a very short space of time.

Financial wellness and the future of work

Just last year, the freelance workforce, some 60 million people in the U.S., contributed $1.3 trillion to the U.S. economy. The industry is growing at a pace on track to surpass traditional employment by 2027.

So, in layman’s terms– freelance work will, soon, be more common than traditional employment.

Unfortunately, most of society hasn’t caught up with this paradigm shift.

The entire eco-system is still based on the assumption that you’re either a traditional corporation or an employee. As a result, an entire generation of freelance workers are overlooked and stuck in the middle– and have no choice but to suffer from late payment and spending a day a week on admin work.

The cash injection and support from our investors will help us onboard even more qualified freelancers to Willa – so that they never have to chase another unpaid invoice, worry about payment terms or deal with complicated and time-consuming paperwork.

Moving money even faster

This first year has been incredible, but our journey has just begun. There’s lots of work to be done to onboard the many freelancers on our waitlist‚ and power the future of work.

We’re a rapidly growing company that’ll provide a challenging and rewarding role with excellent career opportunities. We don’t have managers that manage managers — but a flat hierarchy with clear lines of communication as we recognize that everyone has a key part to play in the success of the business.