The Ukrainian group FRACTAL (formerly Netpeak Group) has invested $1 million in the fintech startup Finerd, according to FRACTAL founder Artem Borodatiuk.

• Finerd is an AI-powered platform for managing personal and business finances. However, as Borodatiuk puts it, it’s «not for everyone, only for financial nerds.»
• The startup is building a universal financial hub that allows users to track personal expenses, business operations, and family budgets in one app. Its key features include double-entry bookkeeping, asset and debt management, family and corporate accounting, and tools for handling complex financial transactions.
• Finerd was founded by serial entrepreneur Radomir Novkovich, who has previously co-founded four companies with Borodatiuk. Among them are Saldo Apps and RadASO, both part of the FRACTAL ecosystem. Interestingly, Finerd.ai evolved from Saldo Apps’ personal finance tool, which the team decided to spin off into a standalone product.
• According to FRACTAL, Novkovich had already invested about $1 million of his own funds into Finerd’s development, which has been ongoing for nearly a year, before FRACTAL joined in. This brings the total investment to $2 million.
• Despite the significant backing, Finerd hasn’t launched yet and doesn’t even have an MVP. Still, Borodatiuk says the burn rate is around $100,000 per month, and FRACTAL’s decision to invest is rooted in the team’s strong history with the founder.

«We already have several successful joint businesses where my partner, Radomir Novkovich, was a co-founder. And this is a niche where he has a unique background: he’s been automating the finances of hundreds of companies for 15 years — from small businesses to corporations. He made his first exit almost 10 years ago with a financial accounting product,» Borodatiuk explained.

• A team of 19 people has been working on Finerd.ai for almost a year. The startup is currently hiring for several positions, including Marketing manager, Senior / Tech Lead Java Developer, and Intern Product Marketing Manager. FRACTAL offers referral bonuses of up to $3,000 for successful hires.
• The public launch is scheduled for the end of the year. Notably, even before its release, Finerd had already built a strong community: 3,000+ members on Reddit and 14,000 followers on TikTok, with more than 25 million views — all without spending a dime on marketing.
• Access to Finerd will be invite-only, with a $30/month subscription, making it the priciest option among competitors. Not everyone will get access even with an invitation: only those who will benefit the most from the product. In the meantime, Finerd invites users to play «Finerd Bingo» to find out just how much of a financial nerd you are.

How Finerd Came to Be

• Finerd.ai originated from Saldo Finance, a personal finance app developed by Saldo Apps. The new product turned out to be so advanced that the team decided to spin it off as a standalone business.

«Saldo Finance, one of the products in the Saldo Apps ecosystem, is a great app — in just a few years, it’s become the most popular finance tracker among Ukrainians, with excellent reviews and a 4.8 rating in app stores,» said Novkovich. «So what’s the problem? I still don’t use Saldo Finance myself because it lacks a number of features I need. For 15 years, I’ve been automating finances for hundreds of businesses — from small firms to major corporations — and for another seven, I’ve built and promoted mobile apps for millions of users. And yet, I still didn’t have a convenient tool to manage either my personal or business finances. So I decided to build one for myself.»

Unlike most startups, Finerd isn’t rushing to market.

«Startups usually try to release as quickly as possible, get user feedback, and grow fast to attract new investments. I decided to take the anti-startup route: build a product for myself and open it to others only when I’m fully satisfied with it,» Novkovich said. «My standards for the product are so high that it requires total focus — something impossible when it’s just one of several products in an ecosystem. That’s why this is a new product and a new business.»

• Saldo Finance will continue serving Ukrainian users and remain free as part of its mission to remove Russian products from the market.
• Meanwhile, Saldo Apps has evolved from a startup into a sustainable business within the Kiss My Apps structure, and Novkovich is now fully focused on Finerd.