Brightside, a financial care platform for employers, has closed its Series B funding round on $33m, as it looks to enhance its AI-powered solution.
Obvious Ventures, a San Francisco-based venture capital firm, served as the lead investor. Other commitments came from Clocktower Technology Ventures and Chestnut Street Ventures.
Existing Brightside backers, Andreessen Horowitz (a16z) and Trinity Ventures, also joined the round.
Funds from the round will help the FinTech company bolster its growth and development of platform enhancements.
This Series B comes after a strong growth period for Brightside. It grew its 2021 revenues by around 800% last year and is on track to grow it by nearly ten-times in 2022. It has also increased its headcount by over 150% this year, and plans to hire 200 more people in the coming year.
A report from AmeriLife claims that seven in ten Americans live paycheck to paycheck. Brightside stated this not only impacts their home life, but also business performance.
It pointed to a study from PwC that found financial stress impacts everything from mental and physical health to workplace retention and productivity. The report claims that financially stressed employees are twice as likely to seek a new job and 76% say financial worries have a negative impact on their productivity.
Brightside gives employers the tools to help improve the financial health of their workforce. Through the platform, an employer can give their employees a single destination to address personal finance needs with unbiased, individualised and hands-on support.
The platform, which leverages behavioural science and financial models, combines a human and digital approach to financial health. It helps to address financial needs by finding community and government assistance programs, arranging payment plans, discussing debt consolidation options, creating savings plans and providing other practical, substantive support and more.
Brightside CEO and co-founder Tom Spann said, “Traditional ‘financial wellness’ solutions have long fallen short for the frontline worker. Most employees aren’t looking for financial plans and budgeting products, and they don’t want a financial planner to tell them they are doing it wrong.
“They want to know what to do now in their moment of need. Real problems are more than arithmetic – they are about real life and require practical, personalised solutions from real people powered by sophisticated rules engines. At Brightside, we have added financial urgent care and financial primary care to wellness to meet people where they are to measurably improve the financial health of working families.â€
It claims that households leveraging Brightside save around $1,200 a year, on average, and employers see an 80% reduction in 401(k) non-contributors.
Currently, the FinTech platform is supporting over 300,000 families. Its clients include several Fortune 500 companies in the manufacturing, distribution and healthcare industries.
With the close of the round, the company has raised a total of $75m in funding. It previously bagged $35.1m for its Series A round, which closed in 2020.
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