- $2.1M in Seed funding
- 30,000 community members on Instagram and Tik Tok
- 100,000+ investor users (90% female, 78% first-time investors, 62% Gen Z)
Alinea Invest is a VC-backed fintech company focused on building an investment platform designed for first-time investors, particularly women and minorities with little to no financial fluency. The company’s founders, Eve Halimi and Anam Lahkani, first identified the need for more accessible and meaningful investment opportunities as undergraduate students at Columbia University. Their shared passion for solving this generational pain point led them to launch the company in 2020 and engage advisors like Scale attorney Chris Jones who could help them in taking the company forward.
“Our goal is to make investing easy, meaningful, and a shared experience,” explains co-founder Eve Halimi. “Through our investing app, Alinea, individuals can engage as a digital community, learning and sharing advice on how to invest and build financial independence.” The app’s primary offering is its “investing playlists,” collections of investments (stocks, ETFs, crypto, bonds) based on a theme or idea. An AI-driven algorithm helps users find playlists that align with their interests and risk tolerance following their completion of an onboarding questionnaire. An initial investment can be as little as $1; Alinea charges a membership fee ($120 / year).
Before launching its app, Alinea’s founders first tackled the arduous process of capital raising, joining startup accelerator Y-Combinator and the cap table management platform Pulley in 2021. After successfully raising $2.1M in Seed funding, Halimi and Lahkani reached out to Scale’s Chris Jones - on the recommendation of the Pulley team - for help with various post-seed round legal needs. “As a two-time founder himself, Chris instinctively understands our needs,” explains Halimi, adding, “his advice is practical, strategic and quick.” In addition to handling HR issues for the company, Jones has offered guidance on compensation benchmarks and assisted in developing an equity framework for employee options.
Looking ahead, Alinea’s co-founders plan to continue refining the personalization offered on the Alinea app and would like to create more opportunities for conversation around investing. “We’re committed to bringing Alinea’s mission to fruition,” notes Halimi, “and grateful to have Scale guiding us on building, financing and scaling for growth. They are truly a startup’s best friend.”
