Amicus.io, the fintech company behind the philanthropic platform for DAF 2.0, today announced that it has raised $8.7M in series B funding from mission-driven investors in philanthropic and banking sectors hailing from the US and Canada. The round was led by The FR Group, a Vancouver-based family office. Wells Fargo Startup Accelerator also joined the round as a new investor. In addition to funding, Amicus is launching its DAF 2.0 platform, a white label solution designed for consumer banks, to the benefit of private bank divisions, digital wealth management, wealth managers and asset managers as well the entire philanthropic community.
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Savvy philanthropists have been turning to donor-advised funds (DAFs) at a tremendous rate, with an 86 percent increase in contributions to DAFs in the last five years, totaling $37.12 B in 2018 – with $121.42B in assets under management, according to the 2019 Donor-Advised Funds Report from the National Philanthropic Trust (NPT)1. Traditionally used for the large-scale philanthropic donations of family foundations and high net worth individuals, DAFs have been late to the digital transformation seen in mainstream investment options like online-only stock portfolio management.
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Increasing demand for DAF flexibility, like lower minimums and the ability to make smaller grants to charities, has been driven by sponsors of new DAF accounts, which have jumped by more than 50% in the last couple of years thanks in part to favorable regulatory changes.1
Experts anticipate a spike in demand for DAFs with the introduction of user-friendly online tools that make it easier to contribute to and grant donations from DAF accounts – putting DAF market projections at $1Trillion in the next 10 years, based on current growth rates and a move to meet demand for flexibility by modernizing the financial instrument, which is more than ninety years old.
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