Credit union service organization (CUSO) InvestFi raised $20 million for its embedded investing platform that enables American credit unions and community banks...
Alpha Score of 59 reflects moderate overall profile with strong momentum, poor value, strong quality, moderate sentiment.
InvestFi, a credit union service organization, raised $20 million to help community banks and credit unions pull deposits back from Robinhood, SoFi and other investment apps. The company's embedded investing platform lets members trade stocks, ETFs and crypto directly inside their online banking portal, without moving money to a separate brokerage.
Founded in 2024, InvestFi has grown from four signed institutions to more than 60 in under 18 months, the company said in a Wednesday release. The funding round was led by Vibe Credit Union, with participation from BankTech Ventures and Navari.
The pitch is straightforward. Credit unions have seen billions of dollars flow out to third-party apps that offer frictionless trading. InvestFi CEO Kian Sarreshteh said the capital will let the company "scale our platform and maximize adoption with the end users of these financial institutions, to pull their account holders and deposits back from third-party investment platforms."
InvestFi's own research, released when it launched, found that 75% of investors use popular third-party apps and that 24% never transfer money from their investment accounts back into their bank accounts. That money is gone for good – no lending, no fee income, no relationship.
Jeff Pascoe, chief operations and strategy officer at Vibe Credit Union, said the investment reflects the belief that credit unions should serve every stage of a member's financial journey. "For generations, credit unions have earned trust by helping members save, borrow and achieve their financial goals," Pascoe said. "The next chapter is helping them build wealth through that same trusted partnership."
The platform supports fractional investing in stocks and ETFs, guided investing, IRAs, cryptocurrency trading and stablecoins. InvestFi plans to expand those offerings as it grows.
The broader pressure on credit unions is real. A PYMNTS Intelligence report cited in the release said member expectations are shifting rapidly and that institutions must use outside technology partners to stay competitive. The race to offer embedded investing is now a retention play as much as a growth play.
For the roughly 5,000 credit unions in the U.S., most of which lack the engineering resources to build a trading platform in-house, InvestFi offers a white-label alternative. The model mirrors what larger fintechs like Plaid and Galileo did for bank connectivity and card issuing – turn a complex capability into an API.
The $20 million round signals that at least one credit union sees the bet as worth making. Vibe Credit Union, which led the round, is effectively investing in its own competitive survival. If the platform works, more institutions will follow.
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