Former Gemini CTO launches Fierce, a high-yield finance super app

Managing your finances can be difficult, especially if you want to try something new like investing or even taking out a mortgage for the first time.

Now meet Fierce, a new company out to change that. It’s developing a finance super app that is bringing together what founder and CEO Robert Cornish calls “the best of fintech for the customer.”

“Five years ago, you couldn’t really do this,” Cornish told TechCrunch. “You would have had to build everything yourself. That’s why you see a lot of platforms starting out with one thing and then trying to be a super app. We built Fierce to bring in these products, make them really easy for customers to utilize and then leverage the power of them being all in one place.”

Fierce’s offerings include the Fierce Cash account, an FDIC-insured checking account with an annual percentage yield rate of up to 4.25%, and a debit card with access to over 55,000 fee-free ATMs. The app is currently available for iOS and will be launching on Android later this year.

There are no monthly fees or restrictions and the company also offers 24/7 support, educational resources, market insights, analysis and ability to link other existing financial accounts within the app.

There is also stock trading where users can purchase fractional shares and ETFs. Users also have an option to profit from their existing stock holdings through a Fully Paid Securities Lending program where they earn income by lending their stocks.

Fierce pulls in revenue from the investing side and also on the assets under management, Cornish said.

Cornish, a software developer by trade, started the New York–based company in 2021 after a career that included chief information officer for the New York Stock Exchange and chief technology officer for Gemini Trust Co. He said one of the things that stuck with him about working in cryptocurrency was “the power of the customer.”

“If you do a great job on the product build, it really creates that relationship,” he added. “That was the foundation as we started to look at Fierce: taking some of the principles that we learned at crypto and bringing them back to traditional finance.”

Fierce also has a nice chunk of capital to get it growing. It raised $10 million in seed funding from a group of angel investors and investors, including Pendrell, AP Capital, Wheelhouse Digital Studios and Space Whale Capital.

With the new funds, the company intends to grow its team of 18, acquire additional customers and work on product development. Cornish is also looking into other benefits, including insurance, personal loans and mortgages.

Coming later this year will be the Fierce Rewards Credit Card, which will give 1.5% cash back on all spending. Any interest and rewards will automatically redeem in the user’s portfolio. There will also be regulated crypto trading.

“We have a very aggressive application that we’re building and the funds enable us to do that,” Cornish said. “Crypto is coming, and obviously, it’s an area that we are very focused around and that we will take a longer term approach.”