imgres-2Vested Finance, an Austin-based financial technology startup, announced it has closed on $5 million in seed financing led by Sandleigh Ventures.

The Austin-based company plans to use the money to expand its operations by hiring a development team to create and distribute its mobile app. It has offices in Austin, San Francisco and Washington, D.C.

Lorne Abony founded the company earlier this year to target the problem of student debt. The app seeks to allow students to pay for their education without incurring debt by allowing people to invest in a student in exchange for a percentage of that person’s future earnings.

“At $1.3 trillion and growing, we have a student debt crisis with no solutions,” Vested CEO Abony said in a news release . “Vested will allow students to unlock and monetize their greatest asset, which is the present value of their future earning potential by providing them with a perfect market to sell this asset to those willing to provide immediate capital in exchange for a portion of the students future earnings for a finite period of time.”

The Vested app also provides access to a mentoring program.