Keep Financial is building a platform that enables employers to provision forgivable loans as retention bonuses, forgiving the loan if employees stay for an agreed term. The product is positioned as loans-as-a-service to make forgivable loans easier to provision for companies of many sizes, with SMBs a key target. The company was co-founded by Rob Frohwein and Kathryn Petralia, who previously co-founded fintech lender Kabbage. Keep has not yet released a product or signed customers; it was founded about four months ago. Financially, Keep is charging a 2.75% fee on loan amounts and says there is no interest unless an employee leaves and fails to repay within 60 days, in which case a simple interest payback schedule applies. Keep is also securing debt funding to originate loans while raising equity to build the business. Future plans include adding adjacent services such as payment cards, mortgage and car‑finance advice, and investing products to expand how bonus recipients use proceeds.

Total raised

$9M

Funding rounds

1

Latest round

Seed

Latest activity

May 2022