According to TechCrunch, 21-year-old Harvard dropout Matt Tengtrakool and UC Berkeley’s Aidan Sunbury have raised a $2 million seed round for their Y Combinator-backed startup, Givefront. The fintech is building a financial platform exclusively for nonprofits, a sector that contributes trillions annually but still uses outdated tools. The company, which launched its cards six months ago, reports over 200% month-over-month revenue growth and has onboarded hundreds of organizations, with a goal of reaching 1,000 by year’s end. The funding was led by Script Capital, with participation from YC, C3 Ventures, Phoenix Fund, and angels including the CEOs of Chariot and Wealthfront. The money will scale distribution and expand their card and bill pay offerings.
The nonprofit problem is real
Look, the founders are onto something big here. The nonprofit sector is a massive, messy, and critically under-served part of the economy. They’re right that the Brex and Ramp revolution completely passed it by. Managing restricted grants, filing Form 990s, and reporting to dozens of donors is a compliance nightmare that generic corporate cards just don’t handle. So the pain point is genuine. Tengtrakool’s experience actually running nonprofits and seeing the gap firsthand is a stronger foundation than most “I read a blog post about a problem” startups. Building a vertical layer on top of legacy systems like Blackbaud, rather than trying to replace them outright, is a smart, pragmatic move. It lowers the barrier to entry in a sector that’s famously slow to change.
But the road is paved with good intentions
Here’s the thing, though. Selling to nonprofits is notoriously difficult. Their budgets are tight, decision-making can be committee-based and glacial, and there’s a deep-seated aversion to risk—especially with their financial infrastructure. The founders admit they already pivoted from a broader banking/accounting vision because it was a “slow and painful sales process.” That’s a huge red flag about the market’s willingness to adopt new tech. And let’s talk about the team. A 21-year-old CEO and a 17-year-old founding engineer? That’s incredible hustle, but it’s also a massive credibility hurdle when you’re asking a church treasurer or a food bank director to trust you with their financial controls. The fact that some find it “refreshing” while others hesitate is the entire challenge in a nutshell.
The biggest challenge isn’t the tech
It’s distribution and trust. Getting to 1,000 nonprofits by year-end is an aggressive goal. The early adoption by churches with volunteer treasurers makes perfect sense—they’re desperate for automation. But that’s a specific niche. Scaling beyond that to larger NGOs with actual finance staff will be a whole different battle. They’re now competing for wallet share in a sector where every dollar spent on software is a dollar not going to the mission. The revenue model from interchange and subscriptions seems sound, but the long-term plan to expand into payroll, banking, and endowment management feels like a classic startup “and then we do everything” roadmap. They need to nail cards and bill pay first. I mean, can they really become the financial OS for thousands of diverse organizations, from animal rescues to homeowner associations? That’s a tall order.
A promising start with a long haul ahead
So, is this a good bet? The $2 million raise from solid investors says people believe in the vision and the team’s raw execution ability so far. The month-over-month growth numbers are impressive, if early. The sector truly needs help, and if anyone is going to modernize it, it might be founders who aren’t weighed down by how things “have always been done.” But skepticism is healthy. This isn’t a viral social app; it’s a B2B fintech play in one of the most challenging sales environments imaginable. They’re not just selling software; they’re selling a change in behavior for organizations that are inherently change-averse. The pivot to cards was the right first step. Now they have to prove they can build a real, sustainable business around it, not just a neat product. It’s a marathon, not a sprint, and they’ve just left the starting line.
