SAN FRANCISCO--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Bright Money, an artificial intelligence (AI) finance platform powered by its unique MoneyScience™ algorithm, has secured $31 million in funding from Sequoia Capital India, Falcon Edge Capital and Hummingbird Ventures, alongside investments from prominent angel investors including Ram Shriram (Alphabet board member and founder of Sherpalo Ventures).
Bright Money helps Americans take control of their debt and start building real wealth through customized AI-driven financial planning. With its algorithm, Bright Money does all the data-crunching math and financial planning for each user. Bright Money uses thousands of data points from a user’s financial life to build the best possible path to financial well-being, while fitting into the user’s daily money activities. It works to outsmart banks and credit companies, so each Bright Money user always benefits from the best decisions for their money.
The Bright Money platform is built for real financial needs that matter most to Americans, helping them get ahead and achieve their dreams. It focuses on getting people out of debt, improving their credit scores and growing savings to build real wealth. On average, users pay down more than $2,200 in credit card debt each year by utilizing the platform, saving $750 in fees and interest charges, and increasing their credit scores by 30-100 points.
The platform primarily helps hard-working, middle-income Americans — individuals between the ages of 25 and 40 who are making $50,000-$100,000 per year. These Americans have traditionally been underserved by banks and even recent “neobanks.” In contrast to existing services and products, Bright Money doesn’t just give users more loans or a one-size-fits-all product. Bright Money delivers highly individualized planning that responds and adapts to each user’s shifting finances, while also enabling intelligent automated payments that reduce debt and build wealth faster than most Americans can on their own.
Bright Money was co-founded by Avi Patchava, a data sciences expert and Oxford University graduate with a decade of experience in using algorithms to solve consumer problems; and Petko Plachkov, a financial services veteran and serial entrepreneur who has successfully built and scaled financial products for millennial consumers over the past decade.
“When we started building Bright in 2019, we set out to launch a unique system powered by data science to help Americans organize their finances and tackle their debt,” says Patchava. “The series A funding we have secured will allow us to take our platform to the next level, by providing users with a transformative journey with their money to really enhance their financial futures. We exist to give people real results — not just another finance product. This is just the tip of the iceberg when it comes to harnessing the power of data science to drive personal finances.”
Bright Money has assembled a team of more than 100 money scientists: expert data scientists and AI engineers from leading research centers around the world with experience in finance, consumer tech and adtech. They spent two years building the MoneyScienceTM platform (a system of 34 distinct AI algorithms) from the ground up to deliver unique financial planning and insight for consumers. Bright Money’s technology enables hyper-personalized and tailored financial plans, typically only offered to the wealthy via dedicated financial advisors.
“We designed Bright to address the financial planning needs of middle-class Americans without hidden costs and fees,” Plachkov asserts. “Bright is only $15 per month — affordable for everyone. So you can get the Bright algorithm for your finances, for less than the price of Netflix. Most Americans make a decent living, but they’re poorly served by traditional financial firms and fintechs that offer one-size-fits-all. Seeing more than 30,000 people get results with the Bright platform in beta, we know we are building a platform for the future of people’s money.”
“Bright has invested in building a unique technology-led solution to help consumers manage their money and reduce debt,” says Shriram. “The business of consumer debt and savings is ripe for innovation, in order to deliver real value and simplicity to users looking to improve their financial lives.”
For $15 a month, users have access to all of the helpful tools on the Bright Money platform, educational resources — The School of MoneyScience™ — and 24/7 access to customer support via phone, email and chat. Based in San Francisco, with offices in London and Bangalore, Bright Money currently has 150 data science and customer service team members, and is compatible with 14,000 banks across the U.S. To learn more about Bright Money, visit brightmoney.co.
About Bright Money
Bright Money is an artificial intelligence (AI) finance platform powered by its unique MoneyScience™ algorithm, designed to help Americans take control of their debt and start building real wealth. Bright Money’s technology allows all users to access highly customized financial plans — typically only available from financial planners who charge thousands of dollars — to pay down credit card debt, build their credit score and start saving. Bright Money delivers results for its users, with the average customer paying down $440 in debt in the first three months and saving $750 a year in interest. Bright Money’s patented platform has helped over 30,000 Americans to date, managing hundreds of millions in debt. Bright Money was founded in 2019 by Avi Patchava, an AI industry leader; and Petko Plachkov, a serial financial services entrepreneur; and has teams in San Francisco, London and India.
MoneyScienceTM, Bright Money’s patented AI platform, uses thousands of data points on each consumer's financial life and 34 algorithms to build highly customized financial plans for users. The MoneyScienceTM system was built over two years by leading AI and machine learning experts from the ground up, combining fundamental AI technology from other industries (adtech, entertainment, robotics and industrial automation) with personal finance best practices. The outcomes are simple, understandable and high-impact plans that are uniquely tailored to each individual — hyper-personalized for every user. Currently, such detailed planning is only available from professional financial planners who charge thousands of dollars for such a service.
