Opportunity Austin, the Greater Austin Chamber's five-county prosperity initiative, today announced banking platform Joust has relocated its operations from Denver, Colorado, to the Austin region.

Joust is the nation's only all-inclusive banking platform for the self-employed. Founded in October 2017, Joust serves freelancers, contractors, and self-employed workers in all 50 states. The company's business banking app combines an FDIC-insured bank account with a merchant account to accept all kinds of payments. PayArmour, Joust’s invoice guarantee product, mitigates client nonpayment—a problem that affects 71% of the gig economy workforce—and helps smooth income volatility with an option to receive immediate funding.

"We are excited to see Joust continue to grow and build its Austin presence as it takes advantage the convergence of the financial and tech sectors here," said Austin Chamber Senior Vice President, Economic Development, Charisse Bodisch. "Our growing fintech sector and startup community is gaining another innovative job creator looking to benefit from our collaborative culture and diverse talent pool."

Joust graduated from the Techstars Boulder accelerator this past spring. Joust is working out of a Techstars-provided office space at 220 South Congress Ave. The company currently employs 18 full-time and contract workers.

Joust Co-founder and CEO Lamine Zarrad has roots in the Lone Star State. He is a graduate of The University of Texas at Austin's LBJ School of Public Affairs and has served in the Texas National Guard.

"Austin has a strong reputation in tech, with the presence of big players and a thriving startup culture," said Zarrad. "It has a lot going for it -- from its amazing talent to softer factors like good weather, and a creative culture. As a fintech founder, the clincher for me was a lesser-known advantage: it is also an important financial tech hub."

Joust raised $2.6 million in a seed funding round this August. The company is now focused on growth and connecting with fintech partners.

For more information, visit Joust’s website at https://joust.com. The Joust app is available for download on both Google Play and the Apple App Store.

About Opportunity Austin
Opportunity Austin is the economic development initiative aimed at fostering job-creating investment in the five-county Central Texas region. Top priorities include boosting economic diversification to proactively strengthen the economy, deepening the talent pool through development and attraction, and keeping the Greater Austin region attractive to entrepreneurs, business leaders and site selectors through advocacy on issues such as a comprehensive regional transportation system and regional collaboration. Since 2004, Opportunity Austin has helped bring more than 400,000 total jobs to the Austin region.

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