- Digital banking platform company HMBradley announced recently that it raised $3.5 million in a seed round of funding led by Accomplice Ventures and Walkabout Ventures
Digital banking platform company HMBradley recently announced it raised $3.5 million in a seed round of funding led by Accomplice Ventures and Walkabout Ventures. Mucker Capital, Index Ventures, and HVF Labs also joined the round.
HMBradley was designed to reward people for positive financial behaviors. And the company is backed by PayPal founder Max Levchin along with several financial technology veterans.
HMBradley is going to pay the industry’s highest interest rates to account holders who save a portion of their monthly deposits regardless of how much money they earn. Consumers can join a waitlist for an HMBradley account now and begin growing their sign-up bonus at an industry-leading 3% APY even before the platform launches.
“HMBradley presents an entirely new experience that will change how consumers think about banking,” said Levchin. “Aside from its digital-first design that makes sense for the way people handle money today, it was developed to help anyone be more responsible with their money”
The average person under the age of 35 is spending more than they earn (-1.8%) while the overall average personal savings rate is ~7.7%, according to Moody Analytics. And most savers don’t know how much of their income they actually save. HMBradley wants to change this by increasing awareness and rewarding people of all income brackets for saving a larger percentage of their income.
HMBradley makes saving simple as it combines checking and saving features into a single and digital bank account. And its variable APY tiers are based on the percentage of the customer’s direct deposits that is saved each quarter. Plus the more account holders save each quarter, the more they will earn the following quarter. HMBradley is going to roll out an everyday rewards credit card that boosts customers’ APY tier when they save their cashback in their HMBradley digital bank account.
Here is an overview of HMBradley’s current savings tiers: Tier 1.) 3.00% APY: Saving ≥20% of direct deposits; Tier 2.) 2.25% APY: Saving 15% to <20% of direct deposits; Tier 3.) 1.50% APY: Saving 10% to <15% of direct deposits; and Tier 4.) 1.00% APY: Saving 5% to <10% of direct deposits; and saving less than 5% of quarterly deposits does not qualify for any savings tier.
“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,” added Zach Bruhnke, co-founder and CEO of HMBradley. “With HMBradley, it doesn’t matter how much money you make. We built this banking platform to put our customers in a strong financial position while prioritizing their needs and providing the features they want.”
The HMBradley accounts feature combined checking and savings, meaning the money is combined in a single insured deposit account in order to look at all of a customer’s money as interest-bearing savings until he or she chooses to spend it as they would with any other checking or debit account. And it also has one-click credit so HMBradley will periodically deliver credit offers specifically tailored to each customer as long as permission is given. And HMBradley customers will know the terms of the offer and can apply and be approved with one simple click.
Plus all HMBradley account holders have access to the STAR ATM network which has over 55,000 ATMs available to at no cost. Outside this network, HMBradley does not charge fees although the ATM provider may.
The HMBradley accounts are opened at a sponsor bank and FDIC insured up to $250,000 per depositor.
Customers can create a username and password with HMBradley to join the pre-launch waitlist now. And for the duration of the waitlist period, customers will build a sign-up bonus that reflects the top rate of 3% APY HMBradley is offering upon launch.
There is no requirement to deposit money before HMBradley launches in full to earn the bonus. And there is also no obligation to open an HMBradley account. HMBradley is going to launch in early 2020.
“We want to start account relationships on a positive note and build from there,” commented HMBradley co-founder and COO Dmitry Gritskevich. “We believe that the best way to do that and to show how serious we are about working for our customers is to enable them to earn a bonus before their money is even with us. HMBradley will build their trust as their balance grows. The best part is that the earlier someone signs up, the larger their bonus becomes. Welcome to the new way to bank!”
Bruhnke and Gritskevich founded the company with Germain Cassiere — who is spent the last 12 years building software. Plus the founders also recruited talent from JPMorgan Chase, Capital One, and USAA.
