# Staax 💸

Enabling peer-to-peer payments via fractional shares of stock ✨ 

- Canonical URL: https://wefunder.com/staax
- Entity ID: wefunder:company:119430
- Last updated: 2026-06-22T05:03:37Z
- Generated at: 2026-06-22T15:29:54Z

## Quick facts
- We make investing social, and as easy as receiving payments from your friends 🪙
- Closed almost $2M in funding. Over $10M in total investor interest to date 💰
- Investors include, Techstars, Western Union, Litquidity, Hustle Fund, Plug & Play, Harlem Capital, and Lightspeed 🦄
- 12,000+ people on our waitlist to date since opening in Fall 2021 📈
- Strong Instagram + Tik Tok Influencer Army (Partner accounts totaling 4 Million + followers) 👻
- Check out our app demo! 📲 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NqyVKIAW86o
- As seen on Business Insider, TechCrunch, Benzinga and more 📰 - We got accepted into TechCrunch Disrupt in Oct!
- Download the app! Exclusive code is STAAXWEFUNDER to win stock🤩 https://apps.apple.com/us/app/staax/id1635862905

## Active fundraises
- wefunder:fundraise:119930: 4(a)(6) open (USD)
- wefunder:fundraise:66693: 4(a)(6) successful (USD)
- wefunder:fundraise:66860: 4(a)(6) successful (USD)

## Story
Current p2p payment apps don't allow users to transact via investments in a social way, which means oftentimes when people get paid back, they accumulate large balances in their accounts, until they remember to transfer it to their bank and then transfer it to their brokerage, which can be cumbersome. Many of these existing apps make profit off the user's balances, whereas we allow the user to make profit for themselves from their balances by investing long-term.Send as little as $1 of stock, with no fees, no paperwork and no tax implications for the sender. Traditionally, to send stock, it can be a difficult process. You oftentimes have to own the stock to be able to send it, which triggers a tax event since it involves selling off your existing stock. This also comes with paperwork, delays, and fees. On Staax, users do not face any of those challenges, and we allow people to send stock without having to own it in the first place.Users can pay or request people in their favorite stocks. When you pay someone in a stock, it comes out from your Staax cash wallet, and once the recipient clicks "accept" in the notifications tab, the cash turns into stock automatically.This is how we avoid taxes, fees, and paperwork as we help turn your disposable income into wealth-generating assets.The social aspect of Staax is what creates a community and conversation around investing. Get access to your friend's trades and portfolio favorites, and engage in conversation by "liking" and "commenting" on transactions!Some of our notable investors include Western Union, Techstars, Harlem Capital, Litquidity, Lightspeed, Hustle Fund and Plug and Play.

## FAQ
1. **Why are you worth a $25M valuation already?**
   - Hey Nicholas, thanks for your question! Our team has a great background in finance and engineering, and have had success with a prototype, which then caused a spike in demand by thousands of waitlist signups. We also did a strong presentation for a Stonks.com Demo Day, which brought us over $8.5M in investor interest within the first 10 mins of the pitch, link for more info here: https://www.linkedin.com/feed/update/urn:li:activity:6906718726583169024 Due to this demand, and not a lot of room...
2. **Hi, could you talk a bit more about how there's no tax implications for the sender in this scenario? For example "under the hood of this app", is the user making use of "Gift Tax Exemptions" and could, in theory, only send that tax year's limit ($15k for 2021 tax year, $16k fo...**
   - Hey Amit, that's a great question! We have answered this on our website FAQ section. There are no amount limits for the sender. How it works: Let's say you go out to dinner with your friend, and he covers the entire bill. You want to pay your friend back $50 in stock, so when you go onto their profile page, you can see what his favorite stocks are. You have an option to pay him in any of his favorites. When you click send, the $50 comes out of your bank account that you hook up to the app (St...
3. **Hi Lucy, Victoria and Nikki, congrats on your early success. Great concept. You mentioned in another Q&A (above) that based on your Stonks presentation, you had “$8.5M in investor interest” and that helped you settle on a $25M valuation. How much funding has Staax raised t...**
   - Hey Clay, Thanks for your comment and question! Staax has raised approx $2M in funding to date, including this WeFunder campaign amount as of today. We can consider this all 1 round, and our first ever round (WeFunder may be seen as an extension round). Our last round valuation closed at a $25M post-money SAFE. We've had no priced rounds before, and have mainly raised on SAFE notes. For this WeFunder campaign, we are not increasing our valuation from the last round (hence, we may count it as ...
4. **Hi again Lucy, Victoria and Nikki, your website says that Staax is free. I understand how Staax can be free for the sender. However, for the recipient of a payment via Staax, aren’t there fees that Staax needs to pay to buy shares of stock on behalf of the Recipient? (Usually ...**
   - Hey Clay, Our services of sending, receiving, buying and selling stock are completely free for our users! When you send someone stock, you don't need to own the stock to send it. It comes out of your cash balance, and enters the recipient's account as a notification that they got stock. It converts the backend cash to stock once the recipient clicks "accept". We've built an efficient ledger system on that backend of the app that allows users to send and receive instantly, so we don't pay for ...
5. **Hi Staax team. Congrats on the Apple app launch. Do you have a version on Google Play?**
   - Hi Clay, our engineering team is working hard to release on android and we should be launching that in the coming months :)

## Team
- Nikki Varanasi (Founder & CEO of Staax ✌🏻)
- Lucy Yang (Founder & COO of Staax ✌🏻)
- Victoria Yang (Founder & CTO of Staax ✌🏻)

## Q&A
- Q: Hey Staax investors, Staax has rebranded as Parrot Finance https://www.parrotfinance.io/
  - A: Thanks Randon! We are sending out an investor update with our soft launch in the next few weeks
- Q: Hi Staax team. Congrats on the Apple app launch. Do you have a version on Google Play?
  - A: Hi Clay, our engineering team is working hard to release on android and we should be launching that in the coming months :)
- Q: We want to know what you see your valuation will look like in 3 years also the income and balance statements Not to say much, I think we are very much interested in this project but then we are not opting for the crowdfunding route. We were wondering if you have provisions to accept alternative financing. With that we can cover over 50% of your target raise. Kindly reach out to me at thomas@700capital.se so we discuss further.
- Q: Update?
- Q: Parrot Finance (formerly Staax) is now live on the App Store
- Q: When is that update coming out?
  - A: Hey Randon, we're actively working on launch, and should announce a date soon, thanks for your patience.
- Q: When can we expect the update?
  - A: Hi Randon, you should have received an investor update email a few weeks ago. We plan on sending another one soon as we plan to launch by end of month. Thanks!
- Q: Hey there, do you guys plan on future REG-CF raises given the rebrand and shift to Parrot Finance or are you still willing to do off platform SAFEs?
  - A: Hey Tristin, we're still doing off platform SAFEs, please email nikki@parrotfinance.io to chat, thanks a lot!
- Q: What is the current status of the project. I understand you may be very busy working on the product and the amount of money, i've personally invested is de minimus. Where should investors go to find updates, outside of the SEC. My issue is that there does not seem to be any progress what so ever (maybe I havent looked hard enough) since approximately 6 months ago. My fear is that you determined that the concept may not work in early 2023, but still take funds and shut down shortly after. Thank you.
- Q: Hi, I would like to know how much money have the founders personally invested? I didn't receive any response
- Q: I have reached out via email and discord but have not been in contact with the team. Please reach out!
  - A: Hi Randon, apologies for the delay - our team has gotten back to you. Thank you.
- Q: Hi, I would like to know how much money have the founders personally invested?
- Q: Why would people pay by stock instead of money when people are buying stock instead of keeping them as cash? How do u make people willing to transfer their stock to staax account just to pay their friends? Are there anyone able to manage the cash flow? How do u keep the user grow enough fast to let user able to actively pay a friend who is also using this app? And will staax focus on p2p or also b2c?
  - A: Hey Tong, Your cash automatically gets converted to stock on the receiver side, so it comes out of your account as cash - you do not need to own the stock in order to send it. It would be as if you're paying the same way as you would on Venmo, etc - where as the sender it does not affect your portfolio. As for user growth, we see a network effect as users typically bring their network onto the platform naturally, in order to transact and follow portfolios. We also have a b2b component on our roadmap as well, working with companies to integrate with their payment system to offer features for payments in assets.
- Q: Hey Staax team! Campaign looks great and I LOVE the concept. I love the analogy of Venmo meets Robinhood. Great way for someone to get into investing. I see you have 1.3M cash on hand and 0 debt. Is that the reason for the "low" raise of only 124k? Doesn't seem like you need the 124k but might be using this more so for exposure?
  - A: Hey Randon, thanks so much for your interest and investment! We actually have closed about $2M to date (updated number from starting this campaign which is not reflected here). We wanted to open this WeFunder raise primarily to allow users / smaller investors into the round because we have higher minimums for angel checks. This is a way for them to be a part of our journey without having to invest large sums. We are in a healthy financial position with a runway of 2+ years, and will be using this funding to help with marketing, tech expenses etc. Thanks!
- Q: Hi again, i dont talking about benefits of investing, I mean the profits of your business if there is, your annual income, and what expectations do you have in the future? thank you!
  - A: Hi Redouan, thanks a lot for clarifying! We are just moving into revenue positive projections in the upcoming quarter with our subscription model for social portfolios, we can estimate an ARR of 200-400K initially, as we scale our userbase via influencer partnerships that are currently happening. We see this multiplying as we increase our partnerships and go global. Hope this answers your questions, and please reach out if any more. Thanks!