HelloWallet, a provider of personalised financial guidance, has secured USD12 million in Series B funding. Chicago-based Morningstar invested USD6.75 million and DC-based TD Fund (TDF) invested USD4 million. Existing investors and new investors also participated in the round.
Morningstar is a leading provider of investment research, reaching more than 20 million workers with its retirement advisory services. HelloWallet offers personalised financial guidance to employees of Fortune 1000 companies. Initially, Morningstar and HelloWallet plan to co-market their services to employers and 401(k) providers and in the future expect to further integrate their services.
This investment and new agreement with Morningstar comes at a point of significant growth for HelloWallet. The company has sold more than 300,000 subscriptions since it launched its enterprise application in mid-2011, and is now working with some of the largest companies in the country. During this same period, HelloWallet’s personalised financial guidance has helped its average members increase their monthly savings contributions by more than 80 per cent, creating about USD350 in extra savings contributions every month per person.
HelloWallet engages diverse worker populations with a simple, yet powerful platform available online and on smartphones. Using behavioural psychology and advanced statistical modelling, HelloWallet nudges its members through personalized recommendations to take small steps toward improving their finances over time. Along the way, its members benefit from a holistic view of their financial lives, realistic savings recommendations, automated analyses of spending and goal tracking, and proactive alerts to financial health threats and opportunities. Through this secure and conflict-free experience, HelloWallet drives high engagement and quantifiable behavioural change to help people save money.
HelloWallet plans to use its Series B funding to expand its client base and help more workers build savings.
"We have proved that workers can save more and improve their financial wellness if they have access to personalised guidance," says HelloWallet founder & CEO Matt Fellowes. "We’ve also found HelloWallet is in demand from employers because it helps workers take more responsibility for their financial decisions. We are thrilled about our new investors, who will help us realize our dream of providing our wealth-building service to millions of workers."
"Retirement planning is not just about goal setting; it’s also about the day-to-day prioritizing and saving that it takes to achieve financial objectives," says Brock Johnson, president of retirement solutions for Morningstar’s Investment Management division. "HelloWallet offers a unique service, based on behavioral theory, that we haven’t seen anywhere else in the market. We share a common goal, which is to help investors make better decisions and help people save money for retirement. By working together, we can make an even more meaningful difference in the lives of investors."
TD Fund General Partner Jim Pastoriza says: "HelloWallet’s financial guidance is based on a real understanding of what motivates people’s financial decisions, through its deep experience in behavioural economics."
Brock Johnson, president of retirement solutions for Morningstar, and Jim Pastoriza, managing partner at TDF, will be joining HelloWallet’s board of directors. Other members include Carter McClelland, chairman of Union Square Advisors; Don Rainey, general partner at Grotech Ventures; Tige Savage, managing director at Revolution LLC; Revell Horsey, president at HelloWallet; and Matt Fellowes, chairman and CEO of HelloWallet.
