A Forbes-acclaimed founder is launching a “circular economy” fintech called Wingpay.- just months after his previous “circular economy” fintech shut down owing millions.
Geri Cupi, still in his early 30s, is a young tech entrepreneur, who was a Forbes 30 under 30 winner in 2020. Cupi has several startups under his belt, despite his young age.
He founded London-based fintech Twig, which raised £32m from investors, but shut down earlier this year after three and a half years.
Twig tapped into the “circular economy” eco-trend, which involves repairing, recycling and sharing materials and products, helping alleviate the climate crisis.
Specifically, Twig was a payments platform targeting Gen Z and young millennial customers who could sell their unwanted electronics and clothes through its app for cash.
Cupi told UKTN Twig shut down as it was “unable to secure sufficient financing for the period ahead”.
It folded owing £15.4m, of which £9.2m was to unsecured creditors, according to Companies House.
The rest is a £6.2m floating charge owned to Fasanara Capital, its biggest investor, according to UKTN.
Cupi has now founded and is CEO of a San Francisco-based startup called Wingpay, which also sells itself as a “circular economy” startup, according to LinkedIn.
Cupi, who also founded MonoChain, a blockchain startup and Social DNA, a premium denim company targeting the Albanian market, declined to comment on Wingpay’s plans.
Fasanara Capital also declined to comment to Tech.eu on the launch of Wingpay.
According to the blurb on the Wingpay website, the startup is part of “the new generation of the circular economy, making a positive impact on the world and your wallet”.
It says:
“We’re making payment a positive experience. We’re here to help you get the best value for your unwanted smartphone.
“But in just a few weeks we’ll already be levelling up with more categories and features that will allow you to do much more. Your wingpay app is about to become even more awesome.”
The Wingpay app can be downloaded from the Google Play store and is currently live in the UK and US. Wingpay says it plans to “expand our wings to many more countries soon”.
Wingpay’s senior staff appear to be heavily recruited from Twig- there are 21 people with Wingpay jobs on LinkedIn.
These include Mike Sergeant, CFO at Wingpay, who was previously CFO at Twig; Dean Ray, previously head of operations at Twig, who is chief commercial officer at Wingpay.
Feride Adili, CO-CTO at Wingpay, who was previously VP of engineering at Twig and Endrit Syla, co-CTO at Wingpay, was previously VP of engineering at Twig.
While Wingpay is headquartered in San Francisco, 17 of its staff members are based in Kosovo, according to LinkedIn.
Funding details behind Wingpay are unclear.
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