Its CEO and founder posted on LinkedIn about the decision to wind down the company in December 2024. He mentioned that, despite bringing new fintech products to the market, the company didn’t reach the scale needed to sustain itself.
Cushion raised a total of USD 21.6 million from investors such as Afore Capital, Flourish Ventures, Vestigo Ventures, Better Tomorrow Ventures, and 500 Global. Its last publicly announced raise was in May 2022 when it closed a USD 12 million Series A funding round. Its post-money valuation in 2022 was USD 82.4 million. Cushion reached USD 3 million ARR in ten months and processed over USD 300 million in BNPL loans.
Cushion offered a consumer app that was meant to help with the transaction history from its users’ bank accounts, determine what fees were assessed, and then conduct negotiations on their behalf to get a refund. It was designed to be incentive-aligned with consumers by taking a commission on any returned cash.
In 2024, 966 startups shut down, compared to 769 in 2023, according to Carta. That’s a 25.6% increase. The types of companies impacted last year were across a range of industries and stages. Enterprise SaaS companies make up 32% of shutdowns, health tech makes up 9%, fintech 8%, and biotech 7%.
2025 is expected to be a year for startup shutdowns. 60% of startups that fail don’t have enough capital left to return to investors. Founders that do plan on returning funds have an average of USD 630,000 of investments left, about 10% of total capital raised, on average.
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