Banking lending

Polar

Website
Founded 2024Origin source ↗Checked 2026-09-15

Overview

Polar helps remote workers, freelancers, and online sellers outside the U.S. who get paid in dollars get better exchange rates when moving earnings to their local bank. We give them a U.S. dollar account in their name to receive USD earnings and let them withdraw through local bank transfers or stablecoins instead of the expensive options they use today.

Company description As recorded 2026-11-08
LinkedIn
Banking lendingConsumer appConsumersConsumerTransaction fee

Founders & team

Previously Aria, GoldenBasis

Company history As recorded 2026-11-08

Grant Ackerman

Founder/CEO

Grant is the co-founder & CEO of Polar. Grant previously led Altruist's integration of SSG, which Altruist acquired to become the third-largest custodian by number of RIAs behind Schwab and Fidelity. Before that, Grant helped grow Princeton’s endowment from $26.1 billion to $37.7 billion as a member of the 20-person investment staff. Grant graduated from Princeton, where he studied Economics, Computer Science, and Finance and met Andrew.

LinkedIn
Founder profile As recorded 2026-09-15

Andrew Wang

Founder/CTO

Andrew is the co-founder & CTO of Polar. Before that, he worked in quant research and software engineering at Citadel and Bridgewater. Andrew graduated from Princeton, where he majored in Operations Research & Financial Engineering (ORFE).

Founder profile As recorded 2026-09-15
2team members reported
Source-reported As recorded 2026-09-15

Founded 2024 · Source

News & product activity

Sources & observations

Y Combinator

Profile depthverified profile
Website observationwebsite reachable
Last website check2026-11-11
Location · source statedSan Francisco, CA, USA; Remote
Pricing evidenceNo pricing page confirmed
Maturity: Not assessed · 3 of 6 areas documented

Source-based assessment · automated evidence rules

The retained text does not establish product availability or customer use.

Maturity is an evidence-based assessment, not a success rating. It may understate the current stage where evidence is limited. Coverage records documented areas, not a complete or independently audited company history.

Stage definitions
independent websitesource corroborationreachable websitedescriptive evidenceclassified market and modelsourced peoplesourced founding year
startup.observe Directory coverage · Sources & method