The New Community Transformation Fund’s second investment goes to fintech relocation to GR

The second investment of New social transformation fund — a recently formed Grand Rapids investment fund for minority entrepreneurs — went to a Texas fintech that moved its headquarters to downtown Grand Rapids.

Zil Money Corp. developed a platform for SMEs to move and manage money online. The four-year-old company will use the New Community Transformation Fund (NCTF) investment to support more than 400,000 customers using its online accounts payable and receivables platform.

Sabeer Nellie.
HELP PHOTO

“I am honored to have the NCTF invest in our startup,” Zil Money founder Sabeer Nelli said in an announcement of the investment. “I’m excited to plant our roots in Grand Rapids and continue to disrupt the online payment platform industry with our unique offerings.”

Zil Money’s website now lists its headquarters as being based in downtown Grand Rapids at 250 Monroe Ave. NW, Suite 400, along with former locations in Tyler, Texas and San Jose, California.

Nelli started Zil Money in 2019. He previously formed Tyler Petroleum Inc., a company involved in gas stations, travel centers, convenience stores and food centers in Texas that now has $60 million in revenue and more than 200 employees. The company ranked 4,090 on Inc.com’s 2021 list of America’s fastest growing companies.

At Tyler Petroleum, Nelli often has problems with accounts payable. That led him to start Zil Money.

“I needed a better accounts payable solution for the business as we were using a number of payment providers for different suppliers,” Nelli said. “We had so many suppliers, which was expensive and required a huge amount of time, so I started thinking about how we could streamline things into one online platform.”

The terms of the New Community Transformation Fund’s investment in Zil Money were not disclosed. The deal follows the fund’s first investment of $500,000 in BAMF Health Inc., a Grand Rapids advanced cancer treatment startup.

The New Community Transformation Fund supports companies run by minorities and people of color.

The venture capital fund invests $250,000 to $500,000 in second-stage, minority-owned companies in advanced manufacturing, food and agribusiness, e-commerce and information technology, life sciences and financial technology. The fund will also support minority and color entrepreneurs who buy companies that are going through an ownership transition. Investments will go to local businesses and those based outside the region that, like Zil Money, are willing to relocate to West Michigan.

“Already, the company has served thousands of customers and has processed over $30 billion in volume, so we’re excited to see the company continue to innovate and expand its financial software for small and medium businesses,” Ollie Howie, managing director of New Community Transformation Fund, said about Zil Money.