NEW YORK--(BUSINESS WIRE)--SAY™ (www.say.com), a technology platform for open communication between companies and their owners, today announced that it has completed an $8 million seed financing led by Point72 Ventures, with participation from Quiet Capital, Struck Capital, Core Innovation Capital, and other venture and strategic investors.
SAY’s mission is to reimagine what it means to be an investor by unlocking the ownership rights of the millions of shareholders whose voices aren’t being heard by the companies they partly own. The stock market provides a framework for open communication and democratic engagement, but the current system is antiquated and inadequate, and prime for technological innovation.
“At a time when millions of Americans feel powerless and underserved by the political and economic systems, there sits a massive opportunity to use technology to empower shareholders as owners and citizens,” said Jeff Cruttenden, co-founder and CEO of SAY. “Owning a piece of a company is about much more than just trading the stock.”
Noah Kerner, CEO of Acorns, and Cruttenden planted the idea for SAY when they first met. “SAY’s mission is fundamentally aligned with the purpose of Acorns, which is creating and empowering new investors,” Kerner said. “Through a partnership with SAY, customers of Acorns will gain a deeper understanding of and influence over what they own, which will give them even more control over how they live.”
“SAY’s technology empowers shareholders, amplifies the voices of individual investors, and helps level the playing field with institutional shareholders. The more shareholders with SAY in how a company is run, the better run that company will be. SAY is the way to better run companies,” said Matthew Granade, Managing Director and Chief Market Intelligence Officer at Point72, who oversees Point72 Ventures.
Lauren Taylor Wolfe, veteran activist investor and an investor in SAY, added, “Shareholders want to know their voice is heard, and increasingly boards and management teams recognize the need for better tools to facilitate this. SAY is creating an important tool for shareholder voice.”
SAY’s co-founders combine a wealth of diverse and relevant experience: Cruttenden founded and continues to advise Acorns, the country’s fastest growing investment app. Kerner is CEO of Acorns, former Chief Strategy Officer at WeWork and three-time entrepreneur. Julio Fredes worked at a private investment fund focused on financial services and met Cruttenden while helping lead the Series B investment in Acorns. Alex Lebow was a corporate attorney who practiced in the M&A group at Simpson Thacher & Bartlett and has been close with Fredes since the two met in school.
Broker-dealers and custodians who want to give their customers SAY should contact Zach Hascoe, co-founder and Head of Growth and Partnerships, at Zach@say.com.
SAY is being made available to select customers first. To get on the waitlist, visit www.SAY.com.
About SAY
SAY is transforming stock ownership by connecting shareholders to each other and empowering them to access their full ownership rights.
For shareholders, SAY enables open communication with companies outside the traditional framework of shareholder communications. It is a social yet personalized experience that allows aggregated and authenticated shareholders to access previously unused or non-existent rights.
For broker-dealers and custodians, SAY provides a new customer engagement and retention model in a world of shrinking differentiation and shifting business models, moving what is currently a back-office compliance function into a product and marketing opportunity.
For more information, visit www.SAY.com.