Qapital, a new way to bank designed around people's goals, announced today that it has secured $30M in new financing. The financing was anchored by top Nordic tech investors, Swedbank Robur, Norron, SEB Stiftelsen, and Athanase with participation from Northzone, among a handful of others.
First launched in the U.S. in 2015, Qapital was designed by a team of engineers, data scientists, designers, behavioral economics gurus, and finance experts to help people save and spend in ways that make them happier. Behavioral economics studies the psychological, social, and emotional drivers that lead us to the choices we make; Qapital uses those insights to change users' behavior and make managing money easy and fun. Qapital's functionality and design have been built in partnership with its renowned Chief Behavioral Economist and board member, Dan Ariely, James B. Dukeprofessor of Psychology and Behavioral Economics at Duke University, and New York Times best-selling author of several books, including Predictably Irrational and Dollars and Sense.
"Qapital was first born out of our own experiences with personal banking. We wanted to build something that made people's lives easier and that helped them feel happier and more empowered with their money," said George Friedman, co-founder and CEO of Qapital. "Since those early days we've been fortunate to have helped hundreds of thousands of people think about banking in a different way – and to experience feelings like joy, delight, hope and optimism around their money. Today's financing will help us continue to bring these kinds of experiences to our users."
Qapital uses a "Rules" and "Goals" approach to personal banking. Users decide on their Goals – whether they are short-term Savings Goals, like a trip to Hawaii in 2018; long-term Savings Goals, like saving for a dream home; or Spending Goals, such as a target budget for discretionary expenses like coffee or restaurants. Users then decide on Rules for these Goals that are automated, for example, "Every time I swipe my Qapital Visa Debit Card or my credit card, put $2 in my Hawaii account." The Goals can be funded through Qapital's Spending Account (essentially a checking account) or by linking an external funding source.
"Building personal banking products that people love is hard, and traditional banks to date haven't done enough to inspire and engage their customers," said Pär Jörgen Pärson, Chairman of the Qapital Board and General Partner of Northzone. "Qapital understands that by building a great product that is easy to use and winning our customers' trust, we will inspire happiness and empower people to meet their goals."
Every Qapital feature is designed to help people feel happier about, and more in control of, their money. Qapital uses behavioral economics to design its product to help people achieve real, positive change in their financial behavior. For example, if a user sets a picture to a goal, they are twice as likely to achieve it. To date, over 420,000 people have saved nearly $500 million using Qapital.
The Qapital app includes Qapital Savings for short-term savings goals, and Qapital Spending, which is a checking account that works with the Qapital Visa Debit Card and is overlaid with budgeting tools like the Qapital Weekly Spending Target. Qapital Invest, a robo investment product, will be added to the Qapital experience soon for long-term savings goals.
About Qapital
Qapital, awarded "Most Innovative App of the Year, 2017" by Google, is a new kind of banking experience that empowers people to maximize their happiness by saving, spending, and investing with their goals in mind. By blending behavioral psychology with technology, Qapital provides people with the tools they need to make managing money easy and fun.
About Swedbank Robur Fonder AB
Swedbank Robur is one of Scandinavia's largest fund managers. It has over $120 billion of assets under management (AUM) and serves approximately 4.2 million customers. Swedbank Robur Ny Teknikinvests primarily in Swedish and Nordic companies focused on high-tech products and services and was recently named best Nordic fund by Thomson Reuters in both the 3 year category and the 5 year category based on its performance. Swedbank Robur Microcap launched in April 2017 and is a concentrated fund focused on companies with business models that showcase a high degree of innovation.
About Norron Asset Management
Norron Asset Management is a leading investment manager focused on Nordic companies with high growth and business value, with a total of SEK 14 bn of AUM. NAM has been named Best Fund Company in 2016 by Swedish business paper Privata Affärer, "best Nordic Capital Markets investment firm" by AI Hedge awards, fund manager of the year by ACQ Hedge and is the 2016 winner of the Lipper Fund Awards for long term performance in Nordic equities.
About SEB Stiftelsen
SEB-Stiftelsen is SEB's pension fund with the sole purpose of securing present and future pension payments for which SEB is liable to pay.
About Athanase Industrial Partners
Athanase Industrial Partners ("Athanase") has a long and successful tradition as an active owner in both listed and unlisted companies. Athanase was founded in 2015 by Stefan Charette, former chief executive officer of Creades, Öresund and Custos. Athanase's investors include Swedish and international institutions.
About Northzone
Founded in 1996, Northzone has to date raised seven funds and invested in over 100 technology-enabled companies. The current portfolio includes companies such as Spotify, Avito.ru, Trustpilot, MarketInvoice, and SpaceApe. The company has offices in London, Stockholm, Oslo, Copenhagen, and New York.
