- Wallit, a savings app for families with teens that rewards users when they save and spend money, announced it raised $2.6 million in funding
Wallit — a savings app for families with teens that rewards users when they save and spend money — announced it has rebranded from Ourly and that it raised $2.6 million in seed funding. Launched in 2016 with the Ourly brand, Wallit was one of the first mobile banking apps for teens. And Wallit’s comprehensive rebrand includes a new platform, a new team, and fresh venture capital funding to continue its growth path.
The second round of funding was led by early-stage fintech investors BlueIO, Mendoza Ventures, BoxOne Ventures, and unnamed private investors with participation from the Maine Technology Institute.
This funding round will be used for expanding its core product, drive the company’s sales and marketing initiatives, and increase channel partnerships given the rapidly growing demand from regional and community banks and credit unions.
As the first reward-based savings solution for parents and teens, Wallit combines the key features and benefits of checking, savings, and debit cards into one easy-to-use account.
And the Wallit app connects to any bank or credit union in the United States and includes a bank-issued spending card from its banking partners — which enables users to send and receive money instantly, shop online and in-store, and receive moment-based cash rewards when achieving savings and spending goals.
Wallit partners with banks, credit unions, and other financial service organizations looking for solutions to help them reach Millennial and Gen Z customers with more targeted user engagement to increase deposits and spending while building closer connections and loyalty to new and existing consumers.
Currently, Wallit has more than 20,000 monthly active users (MAUs). And unlike many other consumer finance solutions, Wallit is free to all users.
The company is led by former Fidelity Investments executive CEO Mike Vien — who recruited a talented management team such as Chief Technology Officer Chris Williams, Vice President of Product Ani Malkani, and Vice President of Operations Allyson Ray.
Vien’s previous roles include the CEO of Vetr (early-stage social networking service and crowdsourced prediction platform for the stock market), an SVP at Fidelity Investments, the COO of Shepherd Kaplan (multi-billion dollar private asset management company), and as a global managing director/head of business advisory services at Wipro Technologies.
Williams is a successful tech entrepreneur who had founded, managed, and sold technology companies in cloud service infrastructure, digital media, financial analytics, high-performance networking and software development over the last 35 years. Williams is joining the startup from Vetr where he worked alongside Vien as CTO and oversaw engineering and product development. For example, Williams co-founded Airex Market, Waypoint Software, Nexaweb Technologies, and Valent Software.
Malkani most recently served as a director of product management at Visa and was a business development manager at TrialPay (acquired by Visa).
And Ray is an experienced investor and board member and served in roles for DAVO Technologies, Rainmaker Springs, and Maine Standards Company. Plus Ray is also a co-owner of an investment firm Cutler Lending.
“Wallit is fundamentally transforming the way the world connects to save, spend, and send money,” said Vien. “Our recent success driving deposits for our banking partners demonstrates that rewarding consumer engagement programs can have a dramatic impact on revenues and growth. Not only does Wallit allow banks and credit unions to drive deposits directly, but it also allows them to drive purchases and increase loyalty. Wallit builds loyalty through enhanced mobile engagement and also allows marketing professionals to drive and measure saving and spending at the household level.”
