Novo

Assessment

Novo is used by small businesses, freelancers, and solo founders who want business checking with built-in money tools. More than 250,000 independent businesses use Novo, and its best use cases are invoicing, accepting payments, expense tracking, and connecting banking to QuickBooks, Stripe, Shopify, Square, and Xero. Core checking is marketed as a free business bank account, and its main competitors are Relay, Mercury, and Bluevine.

Michael Rangel and Tyler McIntyre started Novo in 2016, and the company moved its base to Miami. Its January 2022 Series B of $90M, led by Stripes, came at a $700M valuation, and a $125M facility from Victory Park Capital in 2023 funds Novo Funding, its working-capital product. Banking services and FDIC-insured deposits come through Middlesex Federal Savings. In 2026 Novo describes AI support in onboarding and expense categorization.

It fits a sole proprietor or small team that wants checking, invoicing, and payments in one place. It is a weaker fit for a business that needs multiple entities, complex treasury, or heavy cash deposits, and for a company that wants a full banking relationship with a single chartered bank.

Rating by criterion

We score each of the eight criteria out of 100.

Sector criteria

Vendor criteria

Against its peers

These are the other companies in business banking and treasury, with their ratings.

User comments

These buyer-oriented points are drawn from Novo’s home page, its press page, and coverage of its funding and founder.

• Upside

  “Freelancers like that invoices, card payments, and checking live in one free account instead of three separate tools.”

• Upside

  “Small teams that already run QuickBooks or Shopify value the integrations that pull banking data into their books.”

• Downside

  “Businesses that deposit a lot of cash or run several entities under one login find the product thin for those jobs.”

Where customer reviews couldn't be found, our analysts attempted to give a voice to buyer sentiment, drawing on real information from review sites, forums and product documentation. We omit sites where vendors pay to be featured or pay for a review, plus any review the site flags as incentivized.

Based on: Novo home page; Novo press; TechCrunch, January 2022; Unite.AI interview.

Fact file

Competitive landscape

Small business banking platforms a US founder would compare with Novo.

• Novo77
• Mercury84
• Relay80
• Rho80
• Lili75
• BluevineNot reviewed
• FoundNot reviewed

Lili pairs free business checking with bookkeeping, tax-savings buckets, and invoicing, and keeps its fullest bookkeeping tools on paid plans from $15 a month.

Comparisons

• Novo vs Relay
• Lili vs Novo

Key leadership

• Michael Rangel

Michael Rangel founded Novo and led it as chief executive until April 2025. He remains Founder and Board Member.

How this review was created

This profile gives our own assessment of Novo to companies selecting a Business banking & treasury provider. The Fintech Index receives nothing for featuring a firm, for sponsorship, or for advertising, and Novo gave us no payment for the profile.

The rating equals the average of eight criteria, with every criterion running from 0 to 100. Four address buyer needs in this sector, and four address the company together with its commercial terms.

Ratings are our editorial judgment, made from public information: pricing and legal pages, product documentation, compliance disclosures, public reviews and filings. Fact-checking took place on November 9, 2026.