Copper Banking, which is aimed at helping teenagers improve their financial literacy, has closed a $13.3m seed funding round.
PSL Ventures served as the lead investor. The round was also backed by Clocktower Ventures, Index Ventures Scout Fund, Launchpad Capital, Financial Venture Studio, Maven Ventures, Fiat Ventures, Samsung Next and Arnold Ventures.
With the capital, Copper Banking hopes to further the development of its banking platform and products. Funds will also be used to boost customer adoption in target markets and hire staff for its engineering, compliance, marketing, sales and operations teams.
Seattle-based Copper Banking aims to stop financial illiteracy among teenagers. It claims a third of American teenagers have no bank account of their own and rely on their parents’ credit cards or Venmo accounts for routine purchases. There are also no lessons at school on the subject. As a result, the US is 14th in the world for financial literacy, it claims.
Copper Banking was founded by Eddie Behringer and Stefan Berglund who previously co-founded Snap! Raise, a youth-focused crowdfunding platform.
The platform provides consumers with an FDIC-backed digital account linked to 50,000 ATMs. Users are also given a personalised debit card, as well as tools for P2P payments, direct deposits and automatic savings. Among this are tools to help users better understand finances and make better decisions.
There is also an option for parents to implement an automated allowance and can receive alerts on spending behaviour.
To help get the word out about its platform, the FinTech company works with youth ambassadors to promote it through schools, clubs and sports teens. This reduces fees for teens but also help Copper boost trust and adoption, it said.
Copper launched earlier this year and already has more than 350,000 users on its platform.
Behringer said, “Copper is teen-first banking and a teen’s first bank account. We provide this generation with the cheat codes to saving that we all wished we had earlier in life.
“Access alone does not equal literacy. Despite having the greatest digital access in history, we still have astronomical credit card and student loan debt. If we want to put a generation of teens onto firmer financial footing, we have to reimagine the banking experience.”
The company previously raised $4.3m in funding last year from Clocktower Ventures and others.
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