Nine months ago, Self Financial Inc. employed roughly 80 total employees.
Today, the Austin company that helps people gain control over their money boasts 200. About 170 of those staff members are based in Texas capital, said Self Financial founder and CEO James Garvey.
And, with the announcement on Sept. 16 that the company has closed a $50 million series E funding round, Self Financial plans to hire another 50 to 100 new employees during the coming year.
Existing investor Silicon Valley-based venture capital firm Altos Ventures led the round. Meritech Capital and Conductive Ventures also participated.
“We deeply support Self’s mission of helping underserved customers to build credit and savings, bringing them into the American financial mainstream,” Altos Ventures Managing Director Anthony Lee said in a statement. “Since our original investment, Self has helped millions of people build credit and this latest round will enable them to scale their team and products to help millions more.”
The company has raised $127 million to date. Self Financial closed a $40 million series D funding round in December. And, it closed a $20 million series C round in February 2020.
Garvey has no current plans to raise additional capital, saying that the business is “extremely well-capitalized. We’re in a very positive situation. We’re pretty happy.”
Self Financial provides credit-builder loans to people to enable them to boost their credit scores. Those types of loans don't actually give the borrower any capital. Instead, the loan principal sits untouched, and as the borrower makes on-time payments against that balance, their credit improves. Think of it as akin to a savings account: once the loan is paid off, the borrower gets their money back, minus interest and fees.
Garvey said the company “invests every dollar we make back into the business,” as he and his colleagues continue to focus on scaling and growing Self Financial as rapidly as possible. The business is not yet profitable, but that’s part of the plan, said Garvey, who formed the company in 2015.
He continues to pursue his boyhood dream of taking a company public. While the data points to that outcome as a realistic one, the CEO said no plans exist to enter the public markets “anytime soon.” Yet, he added that “at the right time, when we’re at the right stage, I’m confident we’ll consider that option.”
The ongoing Covid-19 pandemic and the emergence of the delta variant caused Garvey about three months ago to set a policy that anyone who wanted to enter Self Financial’s 6,000-square-foot office must be vaccinated. That includes employees, vendors and “everyone who wants to work with us.”
The CEO called the decision “a tough call” because he believes “in the freedom of personal responsibility.” But Garvey also said he understands he is the leader of a 200-person team, and it’s his responsibility to “keep our people healthy. If you don’t [get] vaccinated for personal or other reasons, you can’t come into the office.”
Though he was one of only four people in the office on Tuesday when he spoke to Austin Business Journal, he believes within six to 12 months, many more employees will be working there because “they’ll want to be here.” Self Financial will continue to operate using a hybrid remote/in-the-office working model for the foreseeable future.
But the company’s explosive growth, which includes a 100% increase in year-over-year annual revenue, also demands a larger office space, Garvey said.
The business now employs people in 17 states, and will be hiring in areas including engineering, product management, marketing, customer success and customer service operations.
Self Financial is working with commercial real estate broker Diana Holford, a managing director, of Chicago-based Jones Lang LaSalle Inc. (NYSE: JLL), which does business as JLL. Garvey described Holford as “awesome,” adding that he “wouldn’t want to work with anyone else.”
The CEO projected Self Financial would have a new local headquarters sometime in the next six to 12 months.
Kathleen Leonik joined the company this month as its chief compliance officer. She joins Self Financial after more than six years at Mercury Financial, where she attained the title of head of customer operations for the Austin-based non-bank credit card company.
Garvey said the business now has more than 1 million people using its products.
San Francisco-based Credit.com Inc. and San Francisco-headquartered Credit Karma Inc. are among Self Financial’s competitors, according to business-intelligence company Owler.
