Today, Sift, a free application that maximizes credit card benefits and earns reimbursements for consumers, announced a $1.5 million Seed Round and the public release of their app, available for iOS on the App Store.
Sift is the first service to provide comprehensive coverage for hidden benefits, including price adjustment refunds, extended warranties, return protection, and beyond for 90 percent of all credit cards in the United States.
Although most consumers are familiar with points and cashback, the "hidden" benefits are buried in hard to understand credit card policies and are overly complicated for the average consumer to take advantage of. Sift is able to offer benefits to consumers by automatically analyzing available policies and filing claims on behalf of users worth thousands of dollars per year. Here is just a sampling of what Sift can do for consumers:
Automated price protection: Monitoring for price changes in a product and automatically securing refunds if a merchant or credit card have a price protection policy.
Damage and Theft protection: Offering up to 90 days of coverage in case your cell phones, electronics and high value items get damaged or stolen.
Free extended warranties: Providing free extended warranties for items including televisions, laptops and other electronics.
Extended Return protection: Extending the timeframe for returning merchandise that is unsatisfactory.
According to one study1, 85 out of 100 frequently used credit cards offer at least one of these benefits.
"In our Beta testing, we have saved users hundreds of thousands of dollars and estimate users get back over 5% of their spend," said Abhinav Dubey, Co-Founder of Sift. "This round of funding will help us grow our user base as well as continue to develop ways in which we can level the playing field for consumers."
Sift plans to expand offerings for consumers including the unlocking of a number of travel related benefits, such as reimbursements up to $500 for travelers stranded by flight delays, lost luggage reimbursement, trip cancellation insurance, and beyond.
"The Sift app has an opportunity to turn the credit card experience upside down," said Joe Montana, Managing Partner at Liquid 2 Ventures. "Although everyone pays attention to the rewards and cash back on a card, Sift is bringing the hidden benefits front and center and building a new experience around this that can change the industry."
Scott Robinson, VP of Plug and Play, Fintech, continued, "Sift has approached this market in a way that offers a unique and compelling value proposition for the consumer. Beyond the consumer, Sift provides transparency that enables financial institutions to target hard to reach segments, like millennials."
In addition to investments from Liquid 2 Ventures (Joe Montana's fund) and Plug and Play, other investors include Sy Fahimi (early investor in Mint), super angel Sophia Collier, Band of Angels, Rajul Garg (early stage investor in US/India), and Anton Gauffin (founder of Huuuge Games).