‘Circular economy’ fintech Twig closes after raising £32m

Twig, a “circular economy” fintech that has raised £32m from investors, is shutting down less than four years after launching.

The London-based startup initiated the insolvency process earlier this month for both its primary business and Mobi Market, a subsidiary it acquired in 2022.

Twig has entered creditors’ voluntary liquidation, which means it cannot repay debts owed to creditors. Twig, which was founded in 2020 as Diem Group, appointed Insolve Plus as liquidator on Tuesday.

It has entered liquidation owing £15.4m, Companies House filings show. Of that, £9.2m is owed to unsecured creditors. The remaining £6.2m is a floating charge owed to Fasanara Capital, Twig’s largest investor.

Menzies has been appointed to oversee the administration of refurbished mobile phone seller Mobi Market.

Twig, which describes itself as a “bank of things”, competes with services such as MusicMagpie, allowing customers to send in gadgets and other items for payment. The company has marketed itself as a fintech by providing an e-money payments account to receive funds via the Twig app.

It previously said it planned to roll out “web 3.0 green payment infrastructure” to create digital tokens of real-world items and let customers buy cryptocurrencies.

The company was founded by entrepreneur Geri Cupi, a Forbes 30 under 30 recipient who previously founded Social DNA and MonoChain.

“In common with the rest of the startup market in 2023 we faced a challenging environment to complete the series B fundraising and ultimately we were unable to secure sufficient financing for the period ahead,” Cupi told UKTN.

Many startups have struggled amid rising interest rates and macroeconomic headwinds, which has made access to capital more challenging. Climate tech firm Cervest and kitchen automation startup Karakuri are among those that went bankrupt last year.

When asked what the impact would be for existing customers with outstanding orders, Cupi said “there shouldn’t be any exposure on that front”.

Parts of the Twig and Mobi Market websites are currently unreachable.

In 2022 Twig secured $35m in Series A funding from investment firm Fasanara Capital, its largest creditor that also invested £4m during the company’s seed round.

Bolstered by the funding, Twig acquired Mobi Market and the following year it snapped up neobank Vybe.

As of October 2023, the company claimed to have more than two million users, although UKTN was unable to verify this number at the time.

When asked about Twig and Mobi Market employees, Cupi said: “We made sure they were looked after and only a handful were affected.”

Are you a customer or employee of Twig? Get in touch at oscar@uktech.news.