Fredericton-based Passiv has closed a US$2.2 million or roughly C$3 million seed funding round following the fintech startup's graduation from the prestigious Silicon Valley accelerator Y Combinator.

Passiv plans to spend the money developing its new product, SnapTrade, which is an API, or application programming interface. It is intended to allow app developers to connect their software to clients’ retail brokerage and cryptocurrency exchange accounts so they can trade stocks and other financial instruments.

So far, about 20 apps use the SnapTrade API to provide services to more than 200 million investors globally.

“Over the past five years running our own B2C app, we've gained tremendous insight into the needs and challenges of developers who need connectivity to their end users' trading accounts,” said Passiv CEO Brendan Lee Young in a statement. “With Passiv's SnapTrade API, developers can focus on building their products.”

The “B2C app,” Young mentioned was Passiv’s original product, which automatically advises passive investors on how to rebalance their investment portfolios. Users can input a set of parameters, such as what types of assets they want exposure to, and Passiv will recommend a basket of assets or financial instruments that meet those parameters.

Passiv’s latest funding round comes less than a year after the company said it had raised $800,000 and reached nearly $2 billion worth of assets under management.

The new raise included Y Combinator as an investor, as well as the New Brunswick Innovation Foundation, provincial angel group East Valley Ventures, Mistral Venture Partners in Ottawa and Uncorrelated Ventures in San Francisco.

While North America is Passiv’s largest market, the company now has users in more than 40 countries. Co-founder Brendan Wood previously said Passiv has faced fewer regulatory hurdles to international expansion than many fintech startups because it gives advice but does not actually hold investors’ assets