# Ethan Austin

> Ethan Austin is a pre-seed investor at Techstars backing Financial Services. See 35 investments, check sizes, portfolio and contact details. Updated Aug 2026.

- Type: Angel Investor
- Fund: [Techstars](https://shizune.co/investors/profile/techstars)
- Location: Denver, United States
- Total investments: 35
- Last investment: Feb 2025
- Lead investor: 57%
- Last updated: Aug 2026
- LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/fintech-investor/
- X (Twitter): http://twitter.com/ethanaustin
- Website: https://ethansaustin.com/

Ethan Austin is a pre-seed investor at Techstars in Denver focused on Financial Services and FinTech. Ethan Austin is the Chief Strategy Officer of Gig Wage. He was Managing Director, Techstars from Jan 2019 to Oct 2020. A local to southern California, Ethan graduated from Emory University with a B.A. in political science. He holds a J.D. from American University, Washington College of Law where he was member of the Law Review.He is passionateabout helping people battling cancer and volunteers for Imerman Angels, a one-on-one cancer-support organization. In his free time Ethan can typically be found training for marathons in his banana costume in an effort to raise money for cancer awareness.

## Contacts

5 contacts available for Ethan Austin: work email, personal email, work phone, personal phone and socials. Sign up free to unlock them: https://app.shizune.co/sign-up/investor-profiles/find-email/ethan-austin?utm_source=investor_profile

## Investment focus

### Industry

| Industry | Investments | Share |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Financial Services | 13 | 37% |
| FinTech | 11 | 31% |
| Finance | 6 | 17% |
| Information Technology | 6 | 17% |
| Software | 4 | 11% |

42 industries tracked in total.

### Stage

| Stage | Investments | Share |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Pre-Seed | 16 | 46% |
| Seed | 8 | 23% |
| Funding Round | 1 | 3% |

### Country

| Country | Investments | Share |
| --- | --- | --- |
| United States | 22 | 63% |
| Nigeria | 1 | 3% |

## Investments

| Company | Description | Amount | Stage | Date | Website |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| Benji | Benji is a modern API for loyalty programs. It helps businesses enhance conversion rates and profitability by providing clients with a new way to pay using rewards points. |  | Pre-Seed | Feb 27, 2025 |  |
| Beem | Qualified active working professionals including gig workers join and access Line's tools, services, safety nets to save, spend, plan better and protect themselves against financial uncertainties via the Line iOS and Android apps. Money Service Businesses, Insurers, Teclos, Retailers, and Medical Market Places that these professionals activelyuse, embed line in their consumer channels to increase transaction volume and prevent non-payment, as well as in their business process to eliminate fraud, detect payment, and other lapses ahead of time. | $7M | Seed | May 02, 2022 |  |
| Challenger Finance | Challenger Finance is a fintech firm. They specialize in providing financial products for the workforce. They provide employer-sponsored financial products to the workforce that begin with emergency savings. | $1.2M |  | Nov 30, 2020 |  |
| Challenger Finance | Challenger Finance is a fintech firm. They specialize in providing financial products for the workforce. They provide employer-sponsored financial products to the workforce that begin with emergency savings. | $1.2M | Pre-Seed | Nov 30, 2020 |  |
| AidBanc | AidBanc is a full-service banking platform designed for non-profits to manage global spending from a single corporate account. | $120K | Pre-Seed | Jul 15, 2020 |  |
| AidBanc | AidBanc is a full-service banking platform designed for non-profits to manage global spending from a single corporate account. | $120K | Pre-Seed | Jul 15, 2020 |  |
| Beem | Qualified active working professionals including gig workers join and access Line's tools, services, safety nets to save, spend, plan better and protect themselves against financial uncertainties via the Line iOS and Android apps. Money Service Businesses, Insurers, Teclos, Retailers, and Medical Market Places that these professionals activelyuse, embed line in their consumer channels to increase transaction volume and prevent non-payment, as well as in their business process to eliminate fraud, detect payment, and other lapses ahead of time. | $120K | Pre-Seed | Jul 15, 2020 |  |
| Beem | Qualified active working professionals including gig workers join and access Line's tools, services, safety nets to save, spend, plan better and protect themselves against financial uncertainties via the Line iOS and Android apps. Money Service Businesses, Insurers, Teclos, Retailers, and Medical Market Places that these professionals activelyuse, embed line in their consumer channels to increase transaction volume and prevent non-payment, as well as in their business process to eliminate fraud, detect payment, and other lapses ahead of time. | $120K | Pre-Seed | Jul 15, 2020 |  |
| Gig Wage | Gig Wage is a fintech payroll company that provides a financial social safety net for gig workers and contractors. Its scalable platform enables businesses to manage contractor payroll, payments, and compliance while delivering greater transparency to their gig workers. Whether they are paying 100 contractors or 100,000 Gig Wage gives the tools toefficiently manage the process while alleviating payments related support.Gig Wage provides an online platform that allows independent contractors to track the amount and type of work they perform for companies, initiate invoices, and receive payments from companies. The partnership also allows Gig Wage the ability to introduce a new debit card with no monthly fee, free online bill pay, and free cash withdrawals at more than 19,000 ATM locations, free cash pick-up at over 7,000 retail locations nationwide, and other products and tools designed for gig workers and their employers. By leveraging Green Dot’s Banking as a Service platform, Gig Wage can now design and deploy its own customized banking and money movement solutions for its customers.Gig Wage is founded in 2014 and is headquartered in Dallas, Texas, USA. | $120K | Seed | Jul 15, 2020 |  |
| Gig Wage | Gig Wage is a fintech payroll company that provides a financial social safety net for gig workers and contractors. Its scalable platform enables businesses to manage contractor payroll, payments, and compliance while delivering greater transparency to their gig workers. Whether they are paying 100 contractors or 100,000 Gig Wage gives the tools toefficiently manage the process while alleviating payments related support.Gig Wage provides an online platform that allows independent contractors to track the amount and type of work they perform for companies, initiate invoices, and receive payments from companies. The partnership also allows Gig Wage the ability to introduce a new debit card with no monthly fee, free online bill pay, and free cash withdrawals at more than 19,000 ATM locations, free cash pick-up at over 7,000 retail locations nationwide, and other products and tools designed for gig workers and their employers. By leveraging Green Dot’s Banking as a Service platform, Gig Wage can now design and deploy its own customized banking and money movement solutions for its customers.Gig Wage is founded in 2014 and is headquartered in Dallas, Texas, USA. | $120K | Seed | Jul 15, 2020 |  |

10 of 35 investments shown.

## Co-investors
- [Techstars](https://shizune.co/investors/profile/techstars) — VC Fund, 20 deals together
- [Western Union Accelerator Powered by Techstars](https://shizune.co/investors/profile/western-union-accelerator-powered-by-techstars) — VC Fund, 10 deals together
- [Hustle Fund](https://shizune.co/investors/profile/hustle-fund) — VC Fund, 5 deals together
- [Ventures Platform](https://shizune.co/investors/profile/ventures-platform) — VC Fund, 4 deals together
- [Hyde Park Venture Partners](https://shizune.co/investors/profile/hyde-park-venture-partners) — VC Fund, 3 deals together
- [1517 Fund](https://shizune.co/investors/profile/1517-fund) — VC Fund, 2 deals together

## About Techstars

VC Fund · Boulder, United States

Techstars provides a global platform for early-stage investment and innovation through programs that support startup growth and corporate collaboration. Its services include accelerator programs, startup education initiatives, venture capital funding, and corporate innovation partnerships.The Techstars Mentorship-Driven Accelerator Program offerssupport for startups, while Techstars Startup Programs focus on entrepreneurial education and community building. The Techstars Venture Capital Fund invests in emerging companies, and its Corporate Innovation Partnerships help established brands develop new products and services through collaboration with startups.

5 contacts available at Techstars.

| Name | Title | Profile |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Andrew Cleland | Chief Investment Officer | https://shizune.co/investors/profile/andrew-cleland |
| Artur Hasselbach | Mentor | https://shizune.co/investors/profile/artur-hasselbach |
| Beata Puncevic | Chief Technology Officer | https://shizune.co/investors/profile/beata-puncevic-e5b1 |
| Ben Liao | Managing Director | https://shizune.co/investors/profile/ben-liao |
| Bob Moczydlowsky | Managing Director & Founder, Techstars Music | https://shizune.co/investors/profile/bob-moczydlowsky |

## Similar investors

### Similar stage
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- [Right Side Capital Management](https://shizune.co/investors/profile/right-side-capital-management) — VC Fund
- [Everywhere Ventures](https://shizune.co/investors/profile/everywhere-ventures) — VC Fund

## FAQ

### What does Ethan Austin invest in?

Ethan Austin invests primarily in Financial Services, FinTech and Finance startups, most often at Pre-Seed and Seed stage. Most of the 35 investments tracked by Shizune back companies in United States. The Investment Focus section breaks down every industry, stage and country in the portfolio.

### How do I contact Ethan Austin?

Public channels for Ethan Austin include LinkedIn, X (Twitter) and the website linked on this profile. For a verified work email and phone number, create a free Shizune account — contact data is searched across 20+ sources and validated before delivery, so your outreach lands in the right inbox.

### When did Ethan Austin last invest?

The most recent investment recorded for Ethan Austin closed in Feb 2025. Shizune tracks 35 investments in total for this profile, including round sizes, stages and portfolio companies, all sourced from confirmed public funding rounds and refreshed monthly.

### Is Shizune's investor data accurate?

Yes — every stat on this profile is calculated from confirmed public funding rounds monitored across hundreds of sources since 2020. This profile was last refreshed in Aug 2026 and is updated monthly. Spotted something off? Use the “Suggest an edit” link near the top of the page.

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