Team: Aleksandra Medina (NYU Abu Dhabi ’21), Katrin Kaurov
About the Venture: Frich is a social finance platform that empowers users to make informed money choices. We provide a platform where individuals, like recent NYU graduates, can openly share and compare how people just like them handle their money.
A: Our financial landscape is changing. Huge banks dominate, pushing out the very institutions that nurtured generations – local credit unions and community banks. Why? They struggle to attract Gen Z, the future of finance.
Frich bridges the gap between Gen Z and community banks.
Imagine a co-branded mobile app that seamlessly integrates your trusted local bank with Frich’s social finance platform. No more clunky onboarding or predatory ads. Just a smooth, intuitive experience for Gen Z built around real-life financial needs.
For the Gen Z user, Frich is a social finance platform that empowers users to make informed choices. We provide a platform where individuals, like recent NYU graduates, can openly share and compare how people just like them handle their money. Whether it’s finding the right credit card to sign up for, knowing how much to spend on a first date or figuring out how to pay back student loans.
A: Frich is founded by two best friends – Katrin and Aleksandra. We met during our freshman year at NYU Abu Dhabi and became friends immediately; of course, back then, we had no plans to start a company together; we were just international students trying to figure out our lives and how to become adults. What brought us together was our shared passion for exploration – both of us took a lot of risks with our careers and personal lives, throwing us into unique experiences that shaped us into who we are today. Fast forward, we ended up sharing an apartment in Chinatown, NYC during Covid, where Frich was born.
A: Frich is a unique tool both for its users and the financial institutions we partner with. For the user, they get access to their peers’ financial information like never before. Users can see how their money compares to others across all aspects of their lives. On top of that, if they see that they’re falling behind, we connect them to the right financial institution at the right time, within the right context.
When it comes to financial institutions, we’re the first active acquisition channel for them to acquire the younger generation. We’ve redefined marketing for the financial industry to position their tools in a context and language that makes sense to the younger member. In the future, we can take a step further and embed their products into Frich to serve as as a Gen Z interface.
A: NYU has been a huge supporter of our journey since Day 1. The whole Frich team has been involved with the NYU Entrepreneur center and, without doubt, always walked away with something invaluable. Fun fact – we launched the Frich app on App Store while we were in the NYU Summer Launchpad!
Our goal with the NYU Entrepreneurs Challenge is to get a deeper insight into how university curricula are assembled – we want to see Frich integrated into the university experience of each young person in the US.
We’re also looking for mentors who have experience selling into financial institutions, especially regional credit unions and banks.
A: 2023 was a pivotal year for Frich. The market squeezed us from every direction imaginable, but we walked out of it way stronger. Prior to 2023, Frich was a purely B2C company, however, last year we secured a strategic investment from Trustage Ventures, who have been pivotal in helping us develop and launch our B2B strategy. Today Frich bridges the gap, empowering students to master their finances while keeping community banks and credit unions relevant in the Gen Z era. This has moved our company into a completely different position, and we’ve raised our seed-round based on it as well. We’re very, very excited for the year ahead!
A: There are too many to name them all! Running a startup is the most stressful, yet the most rewarding experience ever. Reflecting on the last year, I’d have to say that the main biggest challenges came from growing pains. For example, we were faced with the tough decision of restructuring our team to make sure we can execute a new strategy. Taking a huge risk and pivoting Frich from B2C to B2B took a lot from the team but it has been incredibly rewarding as well. But, of course, it’s not easy to deal with so much uncertainty each day.
A: Raising our first priced round! The journey has led to incredible growth both for the company and the founders. Reacting to the changing landscape in fintech and always trying to stay one step ahead of the changes, was key for us to achieve this huge milestone.
A: It sounds so trivial but – just do it! Don’t be afraid of making mistakes, changing your ideas or even the whole product. At the end of the day, people will only remember the most recent version so as long as you’re continuously growing and improving, the previous version doesn’t matter!
I’d also say, don’t be afraid of asking for help. Especially if you’re just starting out, you’ll save yourself so much time and heartache just by asking for help from people who’ve been through the same struggles. And people love helping each other out – it’s a form of flattery to ask someone for advice!
