InvestiFi raises $20 million as credit unions back embedded investing push
Vibe Credit Union led the financing, and InvestiFi says signed institutions climbed from four in 2024 to more than 60 by July 2026.
By Ryan Merket · Published
Why it matters
InvestiFi's backers are also its target market and distribution channel. The $20 million gives Sarreshteh capital to convert signed credit unions and banks into funded investor accounts while keeping deposits away from outside brokerages.
InvestiFi, led by founder and CEO Kian Sarreshteh, announced Wednesday that it raised $20 million to expand digital investing software embedded inside credit unions' and community banks' existing online banking products.
Vibe Credit Union led the financing. BankTech Ventures, Idaho Central Credit Union, Navari, United Financial Credit Union, Coastal Credit Union, Mid Minnesota Credit Union, Truity Credit Union and Southpoint Credit Union participated. InvestiFi did not label the financing by stage.
The round follows a difficult reinvention for Sarreshteh. In a December 2025 LinkedIn post, he wrote that he and his wife put "every last penny" of their savings into InvestiFi's predecessor, CryptoFi, in 2021. Sarreshteh said he was diagnosed with cancer the following month and was later forced to reconsider CryptoFi's crypto-focused strategy after FTX collapsed and the market contracted.
InvestiFi's financing shows how far that pivot has carried the business. InvestiFi says it went from four clients in 2024 to more than 60 signed financial institutions as of July 2026. InvestiFi's own timeline shows 15 institutions by the end of the second quarter of 2025 and 29 by the end of that year.
A customer-led cap table
The investor list is central to the financing. Seven of the nine named backers, including lead investor Vibe, are credit unions in the market InvestiFi sells into. BankTech Ventures invests in technology for community banks, while Navari, formerly CUSG, sells services to credit unions.
Sarreshteh said the capital will be used to expand InvestiFi and increase adoption among account holders. His stated objective is to pull deposits back from third-party investment platforms. Credit unions lose part of the customer relationship when members transfer cash to brokerages and crypto apps, even when the underlying checking account remains open.
The lead investor also has a governance connection to InvestiFi. Vibe Chief Operations and Strategy Officer Jeff Pascoe is listed as an InvestiFi board member. Vibe's investment therefore places capital behind a strategy Pascoe is already helping oversee.
BankTech Ventures offers another distribution route. The fund is backed by community banks and describes its role as connecting those institutions with financial technology providers. For InvestiFi, the relationship can carry commercial value beyond the money by putting its product in front of prospective bank customers.
Based on InvestiFi's published history, the new financing brings publicly disclosed backing to at least $28.55 million. CryptoFi raised $1.55 million from Aktion Partners, Motivate Venture Capital and CMT Digital in 2022. Those investors committed another $2 million after the strategic shift, and CU WealthNext invested $5 million in 2023 to support the securities expansion and rebrand.
The product moved beyond crypto
Sarreshteh co-founded CryptoFi after years consulting for blockchain, cryptocurrency and financial technology businesses. InvestiFi's biography says he previously founded a fintech-focused IT recruiting and consulting operation and acquired a background-check provider serving regulated industries, where he led development of a blockchain records database.
CryptoFi initially set out to place cryptocurrency trading inside banking apps. After FTX's 2022 bankruptcy, Sarreshteh expanded the plan into conventional securities and automated portfolio management. CryptoFi became InvestiFi in 2024, launched securities investing that year and added guided investing in early 2025.
The resulting InvestiFi platform includes fractional stocks and exchange-traded funds, guided portfolios, individual retirement accounts, cryptocurrencies and stablecoins. InvestiFi says users can access more than 6,500 stocks and ETFs, while guided portfolios can be opened with $20.
InvestiFi calls its core funds flow "Investing from Checking." Account holders buy investments using money from a deposit account, and proceeds or dividends return directly to that account. The structure is designed to remove the transfer step that usually sends funds to an outside brokerage.
That experience depends on a regulated stack beneath InvestiFi's software. AdvisiFi, InvestiFi's wholly owned investment adviser, is registered with the Securities and Exchange Commission. InvestiFi Securities is an SEC-registered broker-dealer and FINRA member, while RQD Clearing executes, clears and settles securities trades. A FINRA customer relationship summary says InvestiFi Securities does not charge trading commissions, although customers may pay transfer, administrative and third-party charges.
Signed institutions are the next test
InvestiFi has begun adding larger distribution partners. In April, InvestiFi announced an agreement with PenFed Credit Union, which said the service would be available through online and mobile banking to nearly 2.8 million members.
The 60-plus figure in Wednesday's announcement counts signed institutions. That is a sales measure, rather than a count of live deployments, enrolled investors or funded accounts. The commercial test for the new capital is how quickly InvestiFi can move those contracts through integration and persuade members to keep investment money inside their financial institution.
InvestiFi also faces direct competition. Unifimoney markets stocks, ETFs, automated portfolios and cryptocurrency inside community bank and credit union apps. Broader brokerage infrastructure providers including Atomic and DriveWealth sell embedded investing capabilities to fintechs and financial institutions.
Sarreshteh's narrower bet is that community institutions want a provider built around their deposit accounts, regulatory obligations and digital banking vendors. The new investor group gives InvestiFi capital and a set of institutions with a direct stake in proving that model works.