A new digital banking platform promising to help reward people for positive financial behaviour has closed a $3.5 million seed round led by Accomplice Ventures and Walkabout Ventures nd joined by PayPal founder Max Levchin's startup studio.
According to Moody Analytics, an average person under the age of 35 saves -1.8% of their income. HMBradley is promising to tackle this by increasing awareness and rewarding people for saving more.
Founded by a group of fintech and banking veterans, the firm is planning to launch its product next year, providing customers with a digital bank account that combines both checking and saving features.
Its variable APY tiers will be based on what percentage of the customer’s income is saved each month, while an everyday rewards credit card will boost customers’ APY tier when they save their cashback.
“After I sold my first company, I realized how the banking experience changed once I had achieved financial success. Perks designed to make me feel good, like I had ‘made it,’ had the opposite effect. I wondered why anyone couldn’t have access to the same service and benefits,” says Zach Bruhnke, co-founder and CEO of HMBradley.
“With HMBradley, it doesn’t matter how much money you make. We established the bank to put our customers in a strong financial position while prioritizing their needs and providing the features they want.”
In order to attract customers to its pre-launch waitlist, the firm is offering the chance to earn interest on direct deposits users could have made if the bank were open.
Once the firm is up and running and a customer opens a full account, HMBradley will verify their monthly income through actual direct deposits made during the first 30 days and then back pay the amount of interest that would have earned in the time from sign up until launch day.