Finrise

Founded in late 2015 by Garrett Smallwood, Tyler Quiel, and Mazi Arjomand, Finrise is a Burlingame, California-based technology company operating a healthcare marketplace for out-of-pocket medical expenses. The digital platform enables patients to book appointments, ask questions, and secure credit directly from a doctor's office at competitive rates starting at a 6.95 percent annual percentage rate. The enterprise initially launched its online lending services for the veterinary market through the Vetary platform, which generated 160,000 user interactions within its first two weeks of operation. To support expansion into human healthcare lending, the business raised $5.4 million in debt and seed equity funding from institutional investors including Mayfield, NFX Guild, and WTI, alongside angel investors Sam Hodges and Matt Humphrey. The financing company was subsequently acquired by the popular consumer pet care platform known as Wag.

Finrise is a healthcare-financing technology company that builds a cloud-based platform to provide point-of-care loans and virtual payment cards for elective medical and veterinary services, simplifying payments for patients and practices alike.[5][3]

High-Level Overview

• Finrise is a fintech company focused on *healthcare financing*, offering patient-facing loan products, virtual cards, treatment guides, and practice integrations to cover elective care not paid by insurance.[5][3]
  - The product serves *patients and healthcare practices (including veterinary clinics)* by enabling immediate financing at the point of care and a checkout experience intended to replace paper forms and legacy hardware.[5][3]
  - The core problem it addresses is *out-of-pocket affordability and friction* in paying for elective procedures—Finrise lets patients pick loans that fit their budgets and provides immediate virtual card delivery so care can proceed without delay.[5][3]
  - Evidence of growth and traction includes early press coverage of seed funding and adoption in veterinary channels (Vetary) plus ongoing service offerings and site positioning as a leading cloud-based healthcare financing platform.[3][5]

Origin Story

• Finrise was founded around 2015 and quickly raised seed and debt capital to underwrite patient loans while launching initial verticals such as veterinary financing (Vetary), according to contemporaneous reporting on its early fundraising and go-to-market choices.[3][2]
  - The founding team included Garrett Smallwood (CEO) and colleagues with prior marketplace experience (Redbeacon), who launched Finrise to let patients borrow at the point of care and to serve as a marketplace for appointments and payments; early traction included hundreds of thousands of interactions with its veterinary site shortly after launch.[3]
  - Over its early life Finrise positioned itself as a cloud-based platform that issues virtual cards and builds practice integrations to reduce paperwork and hardware for clinics while offering patient financing alternatives to products like CareCredit.[3][5]

Core Differentiators

• Product differentiators: Instant virtual card issuance at approval and an end-to-end patient financing workflow (treatment guides, on‑call specialists, loan selection) designed specifically for elective care.[5]
  - Practice experience: Emphasis on a frictionless checkout that removes legacy hardware and long paperwork processes for practices, positioning itself as easily accepted by offices.[5]
  - Market focus: Early vertical specialization (veterinary) gave a concentrated use case and distribution channel while broader positioning targets human elective care as well.[3][5]
  - Business model / financing: Initially financed loans on its own balance sheet (seed debt + equity) to enable point-of-care lending and quick approvals.[3]

Role in the Broader Tech Landscape

• Finrise rides the intersection of fintech and healthtech trends: rising demand for point-of-care financing, increased elective care spend outside insurance coverage, and provider interest in removing payment friction.[3][5]
  - Timing matters because consumer expectations for instant digital payments and virtual card flows have grown, creating opportunity for cloud-first financing platforms to displace legacy, paper‑based options.[5]
  - Market forces in its favor include large incumbents in medical financing with consumer pain around rates and approval friction, opening space for tech-first competitors that emphasize transparency and UX.[3]
  - By enabling practices to offer financing seamlessly, Finrise influences the ecosystem by expanding access to elective procedures and creating an alternative payments channel that can improve clinic collections and patient conversion.[5][3]

Quick Take & Future Outlook

• Near-term trajectory: continue expanding practice integrations and vertical coverage beyond early veterinary focus while scaling loan origination (historically funded from its balance sheet) and improving UX features like instant virtual cards and treatment guidance.[5][3]
  - Key trends to watch: regulatory scrutiny of point-of-care lending, competition from established medical-finance players, and product extensions into subscription or embedded-payments models within provider workflows.[3][5]
  - How influence might evolve: if Finrise scales acceptance among clinics and proves credit/affordability economics, it could become a preferred embedded financing layer for elective care—reducing patient friction and altering how practices present treatment options.[5][3]

Quick reminder: this profile is based on company materials and contemporary reporting about Finrise’s 2015–2016 founding activity and product positioning, plus the company website describing its current product features and mission; specifics such as funding size, ownership, or product expansions should be checked against the latest company disclosures for updates.[3][5]