Imagine you’re running a startup. You’ve just hired a couple of new developers, your marketing budget just tripled overnight, and your cloud bill looks like a phone number. You ask your bank for a few extra cards, maybe a higher limit. They give you… a polite smile and a brochure.
That’s the moment Husk steps into the frame.
In May 2025, Husk (former Lipefi), a Belgian fintech based in Brussels, announced it raised €1 million in pre-seed funding. That’s a solid chunk of change, and it came from folks like Techstars, Birdhouse Ventures, NewSchool.vc, and some angels who clearly saw something promising. What Husk promises is pretty simple: financial tools for startups that actually work like startups; fast, flexible, and not stuck in 1997.
But before we get all starry-eyed, let’s rewind a bit.
Two Founders, One Frustration
Husk started back in 2023, when Christophe Sion and Georgy Taranov realized that running a startup with traditional banking tools felt like racing Formula 1 with a tricycle. They’d been there, tried that, and hit every wall.
So they did what founders do: built the thing they wished existed. First called “Lipefi” (a name that thankfully didn’t stick), Husk was their answer to a very personal pain point: how to manage money when you’re growing like mad but the bank still treats you like a college student with a lemonade stand.
“In a flourishing startup, you have two employees on day one and twenty the next day. And as a company, you need to keep up with that pace.”
— Christophe Sion, Co-founder and CEO of Husk
They got accepted into the Techstars Future of Finance accelerator, learned a ton, made some friends in high places, and by February 2025, Husk was out in the wild.
Banks and Startups: A Love Story Gone Wrong
Let’s be honest. Most banks aren’t built for speed. Or flexibility. Or startups. Founders open a business account, get one card, maybe two, and then the friction starts. Low limits. No credit. Approvals that take longer than your product roadmap.
That cloud bill? Might max out your one corporate card. Your designer wants a card for Adobe? Get in line. And forget real-time control or insights. You’re lucky if you get a PDF statement emailed to you a week later.
Startups run fast. Banks move slow. Husk saw the mismatch and decided to fix it.
How Husk Tackled It (Without Pitching Like a Brochure)
Instead of building Yet Another Banking App, Husk built something leaner, meaner, and more startup-friendly. Here’s what they focused on; not to sell you, but to show what happens when you really understand your user:
- Cards for Everyone: Physical and virtual cards you can issue like coffee vouchers.
- Credit That Breathes: Charge cards with 30-day repayment. Enough breathing room so your cash flow doesn’t feel like a chokehold.
- Live Expense Control: See spending as it happens. Kill a card with one click. No drama.
- Insights that Make Sense: Dashboards that actually help you run a business (not just impress investors).
And instead of selling all this with high-pressure tactics, Husk just made it easy to try. The platform is free to start. They make money when you do.
The Real Magic: Trusting Startups (Even When Banks Don’t)
Most early-stage startups don’t have balance sheets that make lenders drool. Husk knew that. So instead of demanding three years of tax returns and a personal guarantee from your cat, they built a risk model that uses live business data. Raised a round? Got paying customers? Spending predictably? That’s enough to get started.
It’s smart underwriting without the paternalism. And it works: within a few months of launch, 16 startups got onboarded and started using Husk. The goal? 100 by the end of 2025, and 1,000 by 2027. Ambitious, but grounded.
The Competition’s Heating Up
Let’s not pretend Husk is alone. Spend management and startup cards are hot. Pleo, Payhawk, Moss, Jeeves – you name it. They’ve raised millions (some billions) and are all racing to own the CFO’s dashboard.
But Husk is playing a slightly different game. Most of those players started with larger SMEs. Husk is laser-focused on early-stage, venture-backed startups. The chaotic, messy, 5-to-25 person teams that need financial tools yesterday.
That’s where Husk might win. Not by outspending the competition, but by out-understanding them.
What’s Next?
The fresh funding is fueling hiring, product improvements, and market expansion; first in Benelux, then across Europe and the UK. Thanks to Stripe and Mastercard, they don’t need to get bogged down in licensing battles. They can scale.
They’re not trying to be everything to everyone. They’re trying to be the thing startups actually use and love. The goal isn’t a flashy exit (though, hey, who knows). It’s solving the real, recurring pain of running a startup without a decent financial toolkit.
What Other Fintechs Can Learn from Husk
- Nail the Niche: Husk didn’t try to reinvent banking. They just picked a very specific user and made something actually useful.
- Partnerships > Paperwork: Leveraging Stripe and Mastercard let them launch faster and smarter.
- Data Is the Moat: Their real power isn’t cards; it’s the underwriting engine that makes credit decisions in startup time.
- Revenue That Makes Sense: Startups grow, Husk earns more. No predatory pricing, no nonsense.
- Be Useful, Not Loud: A good product will beat a flashy pitch any day.
Husk is early in its story. But they’re writing it with the right pen: solving an actual problem in a way that makes startups feel seen. If they keep going at this pace, there might be a Husk card in the hands of every founder who’s ever screamed at their bank.
Want to write your own fintech story? Your Fintech Story helps founders build smarter, scale faster, and avoid all the financial facepalms. Let us know.
