Fintech
Exclusive: Fintech Atlas Launches Card and Concierge Services Platform
When I talk to hospitality entrepreneur Will Makris, I see him wearing sunglasses and galloping through the streets of New York City, looking warm yet frenetic as if he were always on the move.
Makris, known for the members-only club Zero Bond and the trendy Italian club Lucali, wants me to understand that he loves his credit card from the fintech company Atlas so much that he is an investor in the company and that his business is even tied to Atlas.
“I’ve heard about companies like this 100 times,” Makris said. “But this was such a personalized experience. If you like to eat at the hottest new restaurants and want to have a personalized relationship with the business you’re using, it was such a different experience… Atlas has sent customers to my locations as well. So that’s a win for me, too: It’s not just that I’m a customer, Atlas is actually sending me business now.”
In a tough time for financial technology, Atlas is trying to beat the odds by building a business focused on serving high-net-worth individuals. So far, it’s going strong with traction: Fortune can exclusively report that Atlas has launched its own platform that combines card and concierge services, and the company has a waiting list of more than 30,000 people.
Atlas’ value proposition to its clientele is simple: if you are Makris or a former Google CEO (and Atlas customer) Eric Schmidt, cashback and points are all well and good. But what you really want are affordable pathways to luxury experiences, from sporting events and concerts to Erewhon memberships.
“We’re almost building a marketplace for access,” says Altas founder Patrick Mrozowski. “We’re going to pick the best restaurants, hotels, events, and make it really easy for you to access those things, and it’s going to be so easy that you’re going to pay us for it.”
Well, I probably won’t. But there are about 22 million millionaires in the US (many of whom read this newsletter, I imagine) and that’s who Atlas is going after. What was most interesting to me about Atlas was the economics: this is not a fintech company looking for tens of millions of customers. Most fintechs I cover, at some point in their business plan, often have a quantitative challenge when it comes to customers; while customer acquisition is usually expensive, getting into mass market territory is the economic end game.
Not so with Atlas. Mrozowski tells me that Atlas is generating millions in revenue and that its customer base is particularly strong in New York City. The company hasn’t invested in marketing yet, so customer acquisition so far has been organic. It’s a dynamic that ties into the social nature of the product itself.
“It’s like having a personal concierge in your pocket,” serial entrepreneur and Atlas customer Baruj Avram said in an email. “I often introduce Atlas to friends at dinners booked through Atlas. They see me using my card and are curious.”
Atlas’ backers include Peter Thiel’s Valar Ventures, Day One Ventures, Breyer Capital and YC Continuity. Mrozowski, a serial entrepreneur who sold his first company Crumbs in 2018, says he’s not having trouble finding new venture backers anytime soon. (The firm declined to disclose how much it’s raised to date.)
“We don’t really need to raise that much funding,” he told Term Sheet. “We can get profitable pretty quickly because our growth is organic and the amount of revenue we’re getting from each customer is very substantial.” (To that end, Atlas says its average revenue per user has doubled since the product left beta in 2023, though it declined to share specific numbers.)
It’s almost as if this company has found some kind of cheat code for the fintech business model, because Atlas also manages to sidestep another common fintech problem: when you provide a credit card, people have to pay for your business to function.
“No one has ever missed a balance payment,” Mrozowski said. “When people don’t pay on time, it’s not because they don’t intend to pay, they’re just forgetful.”
And yes, if the idea of a fintech that exists to address American Express Centurion is infuriating to some of you, and I totally get it. But Atlas is still pursuing one of the biggest promises of financial technology: reimagining financial services in a better customer experience. In this case, customers are simply extremely wealthy and occasionally “forgetful.”
Hello from Park City… I couldn’t be more excited to be at my first Fortune Brainstorm Tech! As you read this, I’m probably riding my horse, trying to hang out with New Author Jeremy Kahnor I’m getting ready for my main stage interview with Philip Clark of Thrive Capital and Assaf Rappaport of Wiz. It’s going to be a great interview: Wiz is as they say in talks to be acquired by Alphabet for $23 billion. Find out on our live streaming here.
See you tomorrow,
Allie Garfinkle
On Twitter: @agarfinks
E-mail: alexandra.garfinkle@fortune.com
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Joe Abrams curated the deals section of today’s newsletter.
BUSINESS AFFAIRS
– Dividera Singapore-based fintech company, has raised over $60 million in Series B funding. Peak XV Partners led the round and was joined by Value Capital Group, Jump Trading Groupand existing investors J.P. Morgan, Standard Certificate AuthorityAND Themesek.
– rugA payments platform based in Buenos Aires, Argentina, has raised $22 million in Series A funding. Cassandra led the round and was joined by Andreessen Horowitz.
– AlvysA Solana Beach, California-based logistics operations platform has raised $20.5 million in Series A funding. Titanium Enterprises led the round and was joined by Capital Picus and existing investors Response delay AND Bonfire.
– HarukoA London, UK-based digital asset investment management platform has raised $6 million in Series A funding. White Star Capital Digital Asset Fund AND MMC Ventures led the round.
PRIVATE SHARES
– HIG Capital acquired the professional services and payroll and HCM outsourcing business of DESCEND (NYSE:ALIT)a Lincolnshire, Illinois-based provider of employee health, wealth and wellness services for up to $1.2 billion.
OTHER
– HID Global Company acquired Vizzia Technologiesan Atlanta, Georgia-based location systems platform designed for healthcare and hospital applications. Financial terms were not disclosed.
– Soft Bank acquired GraphicCorea semiconductor and microprocessor developer based in Bristol, UK. Financial terms were not disclosed.