Exclusive: BrightPlan Secures $9.5M Series A As Demand Grows For Financial Wellness Tools

Improving financial well-being is on many people’s minds these days, and BrightPlan is redesigning its total financial wellness platform so employers can offer those services to their employees.

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Managing finances is a top stressor of employees, according to PwC. So, buoyed by a new $9.5 million Series A round of funding, San Jose, California-based BrightPlan is developing tools that integrate with employer benefits to provide more personalized dashboard insights into an employee’s real-time financial standings and life goals; paying off debt, purchasing a home, or planning for retirement.

“Stress is not typically about your job or even your personal relationships, but often is about personal finances,” Marthin De Beer, BrightPlan founder and CEO, told Crunchbase News. “We’ve seen employers provide 401(k) support, but not direct support for employees. Before you can save, you need to know what you are spending, and then need money freed up to save. We connect everything to BrightPlan and give advice on all aspects.”

The round was led by the Fremont Group and The Cynosure Group, which was joined by Still Capital Partners and Hawk Partners. The investment comes on the heels of a year of strong growth for the company, which saw a nearly fivefold increase in annual recurring revenue and several new enterprise customers in 2020, including Genesys and Rubrik.

Founded in 2016, the $9.5 million is the company’s first capital raise, though it had some early seed funding as part of its parent company, Prumentum Group, De Beer said. BrightPlan entered the financial wellness market in 2019, and will use the new funding to scale, adding to its sales, marketing and engineering teams.

Year over year, the company has grown its pipeline of customers in a way that growth is expected, to meet and exceed the 2020 growth in 2021, De Beer said. That includes the company’s first major Fortune 500 client and one more in the works.

“We are seeing employers taking this seriously and are excited to help their employees,” he added. “We are focused on the U.S., which is a large market for us, but early next year, we plan to move into Canada, Europe and Australia.”

Meanwhile, as part of the investment, Still Capital Partners’ George Still Jr. joins BrightPlan’s board of directors. Still said in an interview that he doesn’t typically take board seats, but made an exception for BrightPlan because he believes in the company’s mission.

“BrightPlan is really a mental health company that happens to be providing financial wellness,” Still said. “Financial problems are the No. 1 issue in marriages and they cause insomnia. When you use BrightPlan, it is like you are sitting down with someone at the start of your career, and thinking about life goals. They then give you an almost entire financial package of what you are doing. And, if you leave the company, BrightPlan goes with you. I’m here to help Marthin and his team bring worldwide change to mental health.”

Illustration: Li-Anne Dias