Amicus.io

About Amicus.io

Amicus.io, established in 2017, operates as a fintech company focused on the philanthropic sector. The firm was founded by Cor Hoekstra, Walt Ruloff, and Paul Welsh, with its headquarters in Charlotte, North Carolina, and additional offices in Vancouver and Tel Aviv. The founders' journey into this market was influenced by their experiences after selling a previous company in the early 2000s, which led them to philanthropy and a two-decade quest to integrate enterprise technology into the nonprofit sector. Walt Ruloff had previously started Amicus Global Relief Solutions in 2013 after identifying a lack of underlying technology infrastructure in the nonprofit world.

The core of Amicus.io's business is its Philanthropy-as-a-Service platform, designed to democratize access to donor-advised funds (DAFs). Historically, DAFs were primarily accessible to high-net-worth individuals, but Amicus.io aims to make them available to a broader audience by integrating them into everyday consumer banking. The company provides a white-label solution, the DAF 2.0 platform, for financial institutions like banks, wealth managers, and asset managers. This allows these institutions to offer a branded, self-directed charitable giving experience directly within their existing online banking environments. The business model is centered on providing this embeddable technology as a plug-and-play platform for organizations to offer DAF-based solutions.

The DAF 2.0 platform enables customers of financial institutions to contribute various assets, such as cash and securities, into a charitable savings account. These funds can then be invested in white-labeled pools, including mutual funds and ETFs, to potentially grow tax-free. Donors can then grant these funds to over 1.8 million nonprofits in the U.S. A significant milestone for the company was raising $8.7 million in a Series B funding round in late 2020, which brought its total funding to $17.5 million. The company also graduated from the Wells Fargo Startup Accelerator. In March 2022, Amicus.io was acquired by The TIFIN Group and its technology was integrated into TIFIN's own charitable giving platform, Louise.