New York’s Matchly, the US fintech empowering employees to fully access their 401(k) employer match is today announcing it has raised $1.7M in pre-Seed funding. Matchly provides assistance to employees who wish to open a savings account set up by their employers. Its platform will then enable its users who are employees to save for retirement, with their employers matching their contributions.
The oversubscribed round, led by Bling Capital, will assist Matchly to launch its platform, accelerate customer acquisition and make a number of key hires across its team. Other investors in this round of financing included Operator Partners and Amara VC among other notable angels, highlighting the real need to account for the billions of dollars in 401(k) employer matches which go unclaimed every year.
How Matchly works?
The Matchly platform offers an entirely new & enhanced user experience when accessing an individual’s 401(k) employer match. Furthermore, with there being many instances of a lack of full matching or failed payments, Matchly provides financing to ensure that its employees are able to access their full match.
The result of this for employers using the platform has been a competitive edge in attracting and retaining talent, facilitating better competition with larger companies in the hiring space. This is because by using Matchly, employees are offered a simple way to access and maximize their benefits.
Matchly makes money only if a customer makes money. The platform is rewarded with a small share of the match an employee gets from an employer, around 5-15%.
The motive behind the startup
As described by its founding team of Ravi Kurani, who is a former investor in fintechs, and the experienced software engineer Ben Avner, Matchly is a financial health company. The 2021-founded fintech aims at addressing a common problem in the US workforce; the failure of employees to access and maximise their 401(k) employer match. This is often driven by the inability to make necessary contributions to obtain the match, a lack of awareness, or both.
Matchly’s CEO Ravi explained this problem, sighting, “ While the financial industry has seen plenty of innovation over the last decade, personal finance remains a big challenge. 1 in 3 Americans have no money saved for retirement, and every year billions of dollars are left on the table because employees don’t contribute to their plans and, consequently, don’t receive 401(k) employer matches.”
By empowering employees to maximise the effect of all benefit dollars spent by employers, Matchly tackles a massive inefficiency that has been hiding in plain sight. Bling Capital’s Ben Ling stressed this explaining, “ Despite a plethora of new financial products, building a secure financial future remains one of the biggest unsolved problems for millions of Americans.”
The early-stage investor expressed his delight in the model and investment, remarking, “By democratizing access to the 401(k) match, they can provide tremendous value for their customers. We are excited to be backing Ravi and Ben on their journey.”
