Whether or not you're an avid fintech investor, there's no denying the remarkable and innovative companies that continue to emerge from this space. In this segment of Backstage Pass, recorded on Jan. 11, Fool contributor Rachel Warren discusses a fintech company called Twig.

Twig was founded in 2020. Individuals use the platform to sell their pre-owned goods and receive instant cash payouts. The company, which describes itself with the slogan "Your Bank of Things," also enables users to create a free banking account through which they not only send and receive funds but also obtain a Twig debit card.

Rachel Warren: This is not a company that I had heard of before. I was very curious to see how is this turning out in practice. This all leads me to this article I saw today on TechCrunch that was having some quotes from the founder, Geri Cupi, I think it's how you pronounce his name, and talking about this company's approach to reducing carbon footprint, entering the fintech space, resale items. How does this all connect?

One of the ideas I think, of this platform, is to not only encourage people to extend the life cycle of their goods, but the money that you make through the platform, maybe you'll be using that to spend on other items, but maybe you will also be using it to invest in things that are digital, not physical, like NFTs, like cryptocurrency.

So the story was announcing that Twig had just closed $35 million in Series A funding. So right now, I guess the platforms just available in the U.K. This article says that they plan to launch in the U.S. later this quarter and then in the EU in the next quarter.

The article noted that "growth is via user referrals looks likely to have helped fuel its early rise given that Twig charges users a one pound transfer fee for users to send money to a third-party account, but there's no fee if you transfer from one Twig account to another".

Now, we know that they market themselves like the 'Bank of Things' the article said, "it's worth noting that despite that slogan, Twig is not actually a bank rather it's an e-money account," so a key regulatory difference there. Interestingly though, it said "Twig is applying for something called a B Corporation certificate, which emphasizes social purpose and environmental performance," and the CEO said they are in the final stage of that application.

The interesting thing this article calls into question that I thought was an interesting question to ponder. This company is very centered around social responsibility on reducing impact on the climate, reducing our carbon footprint.

But if you're making money through a platform and then maybe you're spending it on something new, having just canceled out that effort that you made.

The interesting thing here it was saying "selling a currently owned things to free up cash might encourage the consumer to splash out more and buying new things. It's not clear that reducing friction involved and reselling will be to consumers buying less overall."

There was a quote from the CEO though he said "essentially our core business is we enable consumers to get paid for their old items and in the process we give a new life to their items and this increases supply in the secondary market, at least. The reason we can afford just to be on the supply side of the markets, there's a much bigger need for extra supply right now."

He said "he condenses Twig's business to a very simple pitch," which is "we tokenize assets combining bank-like functionality with a baked in secondhand goods resale service is a pitch tailor-made for the target Gen-Z and younger millennial demographic," the article said.

And then finally something else that really caught my eye, what I've been saying, "there's a sustainability wrinkle to tackle though, given how thoroughly blockchain is baked into what Twig is doing. This forthcoming functionality will enable users to tokenize real-world assets and make them tradable in seconds."

The idea here it says in the article is that "Twig will enable digital and physical items to be monetized and traded in new ways. Such an approach will allow users to trade in goods at the checkout page and buy cryptocurrencies, as well as NFTs by trading in their clothes or electronics." I think that's a long-term vision there. So really interesting company.

I'm curious to hear your guys' thoughts. This is obviously has a really new space in the fintech space, but it seems like it's doing a lot of good things.