Flyweel raises $2.41M pre-seed to build the financial layer under ad spend

What's the deal? FlyweelDealroom has a profile for this one. Try Dealroom →, a Queensland-based fintech, has raised $2.41M in pre-seed funding to help businesses manage and finance their advertising spend. The round was led by Ten13Dealroom has a profile for this one. Try Dealroom →, with backing from AntlerDealroom has a profile for this one. Try Dealroom →, QICDealroom has a profile for this one. Try Dealroom →, and notable fintech figures including Mollie chief executive Koen KöppenDealroom has a profile for this one. Try Dealroom →, ZipDealroom has a profile for this one. Try Dealroom → cofounder Larry DiamondDealroom has a profile for this one. Try Dealroom →, and StakeDealroom has a profile for this one. Try Dealroom → cofounder Matt LeibowitzDealroom has a profile for this one. Try Dealroom →.

Founded in 2025 by Reuben Scheckter and Matteo Calo — who met during Antler's residency programme — Flyweel connects ad platforms, CRM, and accounting tools in real time. It has already managed more than $110M in ad spend across nearly 1,000 businesses.

The startup's core product, Performance Capital, is an embedded lending tool that funds ad spend upfront and gets repaid as revenue lands. Spend cards and bill pay give businesses real-time control over cash flow. These financial products will launch in the US first, where Flyweel has seen the strongest adoption.

Why now? AI is changing how fast businesses commit money to ads. Companies are scaling budgets in-house and moving away from agencies, but the cash gap between paying for ads and collecting revenue remains. ChatGPT now runs ads and is already piloting them in Australia, adding yet another channel where money goes out before returns come in.

"With AI, companies are scaling ad budgets in-house and moving away from agencies," Scheckter said. "But the old problems remain. They struggle to see what their spend returns, and the cash gap forces them to quietly throttle the campaigns that work."

What could go wrong? Embedded lending against ad spend is inherently risky — if campaigns underperform, repayment depends on revenue that may not materialise. Flyweel is also entering a competitive US market at the pre-seed stage, facing established players in both fintech and ad-tech infrastructure.

The signal: Flyweel's angel roster — spanning the chief executives and cofounders of Mollie, Zip, and Stake — suggests seasoned fintech operators see embedded ad-spend lending as a distinct, under-served category rather than a feature bolted onto existing platforms. With Antler backing both the founders' residency and the round itself, the deal also illustrates how accelerator-to-investor pipelines are tightening in Australia's early-stage ecosystem.

Read more: Startup Daily