Scott Grimes knows money management can be hard. He started Stackin’ in 2017 to bring financial literacy to the masses.
On Thursday, the LA company struck its own jackpot when it raised $12.6 million in Series B funds, which it plans to spend on enhanced data gathering tools, APIs with its partner institutions and to broaden its marketplace of financial products and services. Later this year, the fintech startup also plans to expand to the United Kingdom.
“Finance can be very difficult to navigate. It can be very off-putting. It can be frustrating. It can feel judgy at times that we don’t have enough,” Grimes told Built In. “What we’ve tried to do is create a brand that resonates with people and makes people feel accepted.”
Since its launch, Stackin’ has texted more than 100 million bits of financial advice to 1.3 million Millennials, explaining how to start savings accounts, invest in stocks and much more. The company has created a character to share these messages with its user base, who Grimes described as a young Chicago woman who’s an ace at money management. Building a relatable chatbot was key to getting users to engage with Stackin’ about their finances, Grimes said, which is traditionally a topic avoided in polite conversation.
“We learned quickly that people don’t want to be talked to in a bot version of finance,” Grimes said. “Once you start sounding like Erica from Bank of America people don’t tend to engage.”
To further drive engagement, the fintech company plans to streamline its sign-up process and ask users directly about their financial goals. It also aims to make its suggestions more targeted to events in individuals’ lives, like taking out a student loan. To that end, the company is investing in its predictive analytics and machine learning systems to figure out what financial advice is most helpful to an individual. By late June, Stackin’ plans to launch a subscription service — the app is currently free to download — which will text interested users financial information about specific cultural moments.
“If you really want to get deeper around certain topics in terms of knowledge, information and even just entertainment around finance, we’re going to provide various programs,” Grimes said.
The company also plans to deepen its API connections to its financial partners in its curated marketplace, as well as expand the types of referral services offered. Right now, Grimes said the company mostly helps users start savings and investment accounts. Over the next month, it plans to launch a credit card and loan vertical similar to Credit Karma, and analyze users’ credit scores and other data to offer targeted suggestions. Later this year, Stackin’ may also enter the insurance provider referral space.
“We don’t want to refer them to payday loans and predatory lenders,” Grimes said. “Longterm, it’s really built around curation of a marketplace. We want to make sure you’re coming to us because you trust us.”
The fresh funds bring investment in Stackin’ to $19.6 million. Grimes said the 18-person company will be hiring engineers and product professionals over the next year.
Octopus Ventures led the round, with participation from Experian Ventures, Cherry Tree Investments, Dig Ventures, Mucker Capital, Unlock Venture Partners, Techstars and Wavemaker Partners.
