Local Enterprise & Jobs

Earnnest is a Greenville-based fintech company providing a secure digital platform for earnest money deposits and real estate payments, replacing paper checks and wire transfers.

For decades, real estate transactions relied on paper checks, wire transfers, and manual processes to move earnest money between buyers, agents, attorneys, and lenders. While the system worked, it was often inefficient and increasingly vulnerable to fraud. Earnnest was created to modernize that process. Based in Greenville, South Carolina, the company developed a secure digital platform that enables earnest money deposits and other real estate payments to be processed electronically, helping reduce administrative burden while improving transparency and security for everyone involved in a transaction.

In April 2024, an Abundance Angel recommended an $80,000 loan to support the company’s continued growth and operations. The investment provided non-dilutive capital while allowing charitable dollars to remain recyclable for future community investments. At the time of investment, Earnnest was facilitating more than 120,000 digital earnest money transactions annually and had established itself as a growing participant in the real estate technology sector. The company represented a different kind of impact opportunity within the Abundance portfolio: a mission-driven business creating jobs, developing technology, and building economic value in the Southeast.