Pillar, which helps users manage and save money to improve student loan repayments, has launched its services, marking this with the $5.5m seed round close.
American venture capital firm Kleiner Perkins led the investment, with participation also coming from Rainfall Ventures, Great Oaks VC, Financial Venture Studio, Kairos, Red Dog Capital, and Day One Ventures.
Several angel investors also took part, including former Wealthfront CEO Adam Nash, former Foursquare SVP of product Noah Weiss, Flatiron Health co-founders Zach Weinberg and Nat Turner, Nova Credit CEO and co-founder Misha Esipov, and Robinhood’s head of growth Patrick Kavanagh, and head of finance Nadia Asoyan.
Early users of the app have already linked more than $50m worth of student loans into the platform. Consumers can join the waitlist for Pillar, which is available on both Android and iOS.
Pillar aims to ease the student loan repayment pandemic through its app which automates and manages loan repayments.
Its app aggregates all of a borrower’s student loans into a single location. With this, it analyses their loans, income, and spending, in order to determine the quickest route to pay the debt off. Pillar will then automate the payment and management process.
On the app, users can make in-app payments and monitor regularly updated tips on how they save money and accelerate loan repayments. Pillar shows users how much money they will save over time if them make specified payments now or in the future and whether they can afford to increase repayments.
The mobile app is free to download and use, but later in the year, the company plans to release premium features which a user can opt-in for.
Kleiner Perkins investor Monica Desai said, “Managing student loans has become one of the biggest challenges for many Americans today, impeding their financial well-being.
“Startups have revolutionized many aspects of personal finance. We believe Pillar is well poised to tackle this mounting crisis and make it radically easier for graduates to manage and get ahead of their student loans.”
