Boston Harbor Angels is a group of proven business leaders interested in investing a portion of their assets in high growth, early stage companies. The group was formed in February 2004 and since then has made a number of investments in companies in medical devices, IT, consumer products, business products, specialty materials, Internet, aviation, etc. They believe they contribute more than money to the companies they fund and welcome the opportunity to work with entrepreneurs open to take advice, yet having the smarts and determination to make the company successful.  Their focus is on early stage companies usually looking to raise $250K to $1.5M, where they can fund a portion of the round and syndicate the deal with other angel groups or early stage venture funds. The stage of the company should be close to commercialization, while the company should have a clear and defensible competitive advantage. They are looking for capital efficient businesses, which can reach profitability with less than $5M of equity investment and provide at least 10X return on the investment within 5 years.  They do not invest as a fund - each of their members makes his or her individual investment decision but they collaborate in Due Diligence. They have a deep expertise in the life sciences field where they usually take the position of a lead investor, but are open to any opportunities that can make a strong business case. In some cases they prefer to be the follow on investor if they cannot identify a person with strong expertise within their group.  The groupâ€™s strategy is directed by an executive committee which consists of 8 people elected by the group: Wayne Griffith (chairman), Bill McPhee, Henry Kay, Jay Schwartz (membership director), Steve Andress, Peter Miller, Don Freeman and Mic Williams (president and founder). The groupâ€™s day-to-day operations are managed by Boris Batchvarov (managing director).  They receive 20-30 business summaries each month, out of which they select 8 companies to make a personal presentation to their screening committee. The screening committee consists of volunteers from the group. The presentations are 10 min long followed by 10 min Q&A. 4 of the companies are invited to present to the whole group, with the idea to get the people interested and decide to perform a Due Diligence with the companies before making an investment.

Boston Harbor Angels

Broadway Angels is an angel investment group made up of world-class investors and business executives who all happen to be women. They all have decades of experience investing in and managing the best technology companies in the world. All of us are or have been General Partners in venture capital firms or Senior Executives in top technology companies. For most of us, they have been the only woman partner or senior executive in their firm. All of us have built great careers and portfolios along with amazing relationships with entrepreneurs and executives.

Broadway Angels

SixThirty is a global venture capital fund that operates a go-to-market program for B2B FinTech, InsurTech & Cybser Security startups.  SixThirty invests in and helps grow between 8 - 12 early-stage (generally Seed - Series A) companies each year, providing funding, mentorship, and connections. Learn more about the SixThirty investment process at https://sixthirty.co/apply/. SixThirty's mission is to find the most innovative ideas in enterprise financial technology, insurance technology, and cyber security across the globe, and work with like-minded corporate investors and partners to mentor and grow them into great businesses.

SixThirty

The Financial Solutions Lab was established in 2014 to cultivate, support, and scale innovative ideas that help improve financial health. We focus on solutions addressing acute and persistent financial health challenges faced by low- to moderate-income (LMI) individuals, Black and Latinx communities, and other underserved consumers. The Financial Health Network manages the Financial Solutions Lab in collaboration with founding partner JPMorgan Chase and with support from Prudential Financial.

Financial Solutions Lab

Reach supports entrepreneurs that develops technology solutions for challenges across early childhood, K-12, higher education, and workforce reskilling and upskilling. They invest in early-stage tech tools, applications, content, and services to improve educational opportunities for all learners. The Fund also acts as a catalyst, inspiring and enabling traditional and non-traditional investors to provide capital to the fast-growing ed-tech market.

Reach Capital

Head and Heart Capital invest in angel and seed stage impact focused ventures.

Head and Heart Capital

EQx Fund operates an angel investment fund focusing on diversified early stage investments in extraordinary founders. EQx Fund seeks the founders and leaders that can grow the business and take a company from idea to exit, and invest early on in the Seed to Series A round. The fund is industry agnostic and follows an evergreen structure, allowing new investors to join at any point for the opportunity to participate in the next 20 deals. EQx Fund is headquartered in Boston, Massachusetts.

EQx Fund

Rethink Impact is the largest, US-based impact venture capital firm with a gender lens that invests in female leaders using technology to solve the world’s biggest problems. We believe that the next generation of extraordinary companies (in health, environmental sustainability, education, and economic empowerment) will find success through their relentless pursuit of mission, for the benefit of all communities. We seek mission-driven founders and teams leveraging breakthrough innovations in technology for the benefit of people and planet. Our primary focus is on companies with female CEOs, or in some cases, women in C-level roles (e.g. CTO, COO, CRO, or CFO). We write $2M-$10M checks to lead or co-invest in Late Seed–Series C rounds. We look for companies with $500K-$15M in annual recurring revenue that are on a path to grow to $50M-$100M in the next five years (although, we will invest in later-stage deals where we believe we can have a significant impact and where the company is a fit for our mission more broadly). We have a bias towards capital-efficient, software solutions and marketplaces solving critical problems for businesses (B2B and B2B2C) and, ultimately, the communities they serve. We are actively sourcing investments that are making new digital health and education innovations broadly accessible to improve outcomes and reduce costs, providing tools for individuals and families to move up the economic ladder, and speeding the transition to a more sustainable and resource-efficient economy. We work to actively support our portfolio companies, helping them with everything from their next round of financing to leveraging their mission as a competitive advantage in hiring, growth, and brand building.

Rethink Impact

Vulcan Capital invests across all stages of corporate development through leveraged buyouts, growth capital, distressed/turnaround, and early-stage venture capital as well as public equity value investing. The firm's portfolio spans a range of industry sectors, including media and communications, energy and natural resources, financial and information services, technology, and life sciences. Vulcan Capital is the private investment group of Vulcan Inc., the organization founded by Paul G. Allen, co-founder of Microsoft.

Vulcan Capital

First Data Corporation, a global leader in electronic commerce and payment processing, is headquartered in Atlanta, Georgia. Around the world, every second of every day, First Data makes payment transactions secure, fast and easy for merchants, financial institutions and their customers. First Data leverages its vast product portfolio and expertise to drive customer revenue and profitability. Whether the choice of payment is by debit or credit card, gift card, check or mobile phone, online or at the checkout counter, First Data takes every opportunity to go beyond the transaction.  Serving more than 6 million merchants and over 4,000 financial institutions worldwide, First Data's product portfolio includes merchant transaction processing services; credit, debit, private-label, gift, payroll and other prepaid card issuing and processing; fraud protection and authentication solutions; electronic check acceptance services through TeleCheck; as well as Internet commerce and mobile payment solutions. The company's STAR® Network enables consumers to use their ATM / debit cards to obtain cash and make purchases quickly and securely throughout the United States. STAR is one of the nation’s leading electronic funds transfer (EFT) networks, with more than 2 million retail and ATM locations. Company Structure First Data Corporation is a global provider of electronic commerce and payment solutions for merchants, financial institutions, and card issuers with operations in 34 countries, serving approximately 6.2 million merchant locations. They were incorporated in Delaware in 1989 and were the subject of an initial public offering in connection with a spin-off from American Express in 1992. On September 24, 2007, they were acquired through a merger transaction with an entity controlled by affiliates of Kohlberg Kravis Roberts & Co. (KKR) that resulted in their equity becoming privately held.

First Data Corporation

Impact Engine is a venture capital and private equity investment firm focused on growing companies that generate positive outcomes in education, health, economic empowerment, and environmental sustainability.

Impact Engine

Breton Capital Management is a private equity firm specializing in investing in special situations.

Breton Capital Management

Salesforce Ventures helps enterprising founders build companies that reinvent the way the world works.  they’ve invested in and partnered with more than 400 of the world's tenacious enterprise software companies  Salesforce Ventures leverages decades of expertise in the cloud and long-term relationships with key decision-makers at thousands of businesses around the world to give portfolio companies an unfair advantage, help them build credibility, and accelerate growth.

Salesforce Ventures

G9 Ventures is investing in early-stage companies that empower the consumer to live, look, and feel better. The firm is headquartered in New York, United States.

G9 Ventures

UBS is a global wealth manager, an investment banking and securities firm, and one of the global asset managers. It works with individuals, families, institutions, and corporations around the world to help answer some of life's questions, whether through award-winning wealth management advisory, investment banking, and asset management expertise, or private and corporate banking services in Switzerland.

Fiserv is a global organization with more than 13,000 clients and 21,000 associates worldwide and takes pride in its mission to enable clients to achieve best-in-class results. The company is highly regarded for its financial services technology and services innovation, including award-winning solutions for mobile and online banking, payments, risk management, data analytics and core account processing.  Fiserv is helping its clients push the boundaries of what's possible in financial services, delivering deep expertise and innovative solutions to help financial institutions, businesses and consumers move and manage money faster and with greater ease than ever before.

Fiserv

Aflac Corporate Ventures invest in startup companies in cancer, health tech, and insurtech business areas. It was founded in 2016 and is based in Columbus, Georgia, United States.

Aflac Global Ventures

Altos Ventures was founded in 1996 to invest in early-stage technology companies. After starting with $30 million in committed capital, they currently manage more than $8 billion in regulatory assets under management, supporting the full lifecycle of companies from inception to global growth and profitability.  They have been the first and lead institutional investor in 100+ companies around the world. They invest in both consumer and enterprise tech companies, with a particular interest in enterprise SaaS, FinTech, e-commerce, and consumer brands and services. They look to invest in high-growth, capital-efficient, founder-led companies. Initial investments can start as small as $500,000 while our follow-on investments can exceed $100 million in a single round, purchasing both primary and secondary shares.

Altos Ventures

Cercano Management is an investment firm.

Cercano Management

Candidly

Candidly is an AI-driven student debt and savings optimization platform. It offers individuals and families through every step of the planning, borrowing, and repayment experience.

Candidly (formerly FutureFuel.io) provides&nbsp;a debt management platform for employers&nbsp;to help manage student loan debt of its staff. The platform facilitates employer contribution towards student loan payments, allows the aggregation of multiple loans, provides tools to optimize federal programs to save money and a marketplace for users to find cheaper refinancing options for their student loan debt. It also offers “<a href="https://sp-edge.com/updates/35499">Onward</a>,” a debt optimization solution available to workplace financial solution providers like 401(k) and 403(b) recordkeepers, as well as retirement plan advisors. Onward, an API-only offering, provides real-time, tailored decision support, which can be combined with actionable steps to help users reduce consumer debt and redirect those savings into interest-earning deposits.

Helping employers provide personalized, high-touch, and holistic financial wellness tools to their entire workforce.

Financial Wellness Tools

Candidly (formerly FutureFuel.io)

Student debt repayment FinTech Candidly scores funding after strong growth

FutureFuel.io has partnered with Fiserv to bring its student loan repayment platform to consumers through banks and credit unions.

To enhance its UBS Workplace Wealth solutions with FutureFuel.io's student loan debt solution, retirement plan advisor platform for small businesses, and user-friendly digital financial wellness platform combining human guidance and digital resources that helps employees develop healthy financial habits.

Provides a platform for employers to provide resources such as tools and advice to manage employee debt (with an increased focus on student loan debt).

Candidly (formerly FutureFuel.io) provides&nbsp;a debt management platform for employers&nbsp;to help manage student loan debt of its staff. The platform facilitates employer contribution towards student loan payments, allows the aggregation of multiple loans, provides tools to optimize federal programs to save money and a marketplace for users to find cheaper refinancing options for their student loan debt. It also offers “<a href="https://sp-edge.com/updates/35499">Onward</a>,” a debt optimization solution available to workplace financial solution providers like 401(k) and 403(b) recordkeepers, as well as retirement plan advisors. Onward, an API-only offering, provides real-time, tailored decision support, which can be combined with actionable steps to help users reduce consumer debt and redirect those savings into interest-earning deposits.In April 2020, the company launched a free tool to optimize the benefits of student loan repayment relief offered by the US government as part of its Covid-19 relief efforts. The company also partners with more than 450 brands to offer up to 30% cashback on purchases by users of FutureFuel, the cashback is set off against outstanding student loan debt.Candidly has reported a 10x YoY revenue growth and a 3,600% YoY increase in transactional payments through its platform for 2022.Key customers and partnershipsAs of March 2023, Candidly integrated with notable companies such as Guild, Empower, Lincoln Financial Group, Vanguard, UBS, Fiserv, and others to serve over 35 million employees in the US.In March 2024, Candidly <a href="https://sp-edge.com/updates/27833">partnered with intellicents</a> to offer student debt solutions to plan sponsors and participants.

Based in the UK, Salary Finance offers a comprehensive suite of financial well-being benefits for employees. The company partners with employers to offer a platform that provides employees with access to a range of financial well-being products, including salary-backed loans, earned wage advances, savings accounts, and customized educational resources to help them build and automate savings as well as improve their overall financial well-being.In April 2024, the US operations of Salary Finance merged with the financial wellness benefit platform <a href="https://sp-edge.com/companies/609722">Finfit</a>. The combined entity now operates under the FinFit brand in the US.Key customers and partnershipsAs of February 2024, the platform was used by 600 employers across the UK, available to more than 4.5 million employees. These include more than a fifth of the companies in the FTSE-100 index. Its notable customers include the NHS, Dunelm, Virgin Active, and Simply Health.Salary Finance partnered with the American financial technology company Chime in July 2021, to launch Save—a new product to incentivize US employees to set up a salary-linked savings account with Chime, and become entitled to a USD 50 bonus and a variable Annual Percentage Yield (APY) of 0.50%.

Salary Finance

Payactiv offers a financial wellness solution, centered around "Earned-Wage Access," allowing employees to access their wages before payday. Employees can instantly access funds for hours worked, with options to transfer to their bank, load onto a Payactiv card, or withdraw cash at Walmart. Its app works as a digital wallet and includes additional features such as AI and machine-learning-based tools for budgeting, tracking savings, managing spending and bills, and obtaining personalized one-on-one financial coaching from trained professionals.The Payactiv app also features a free communication tool—Payactiv Connect—that enables employers and employees to connect for HR communications, company news, alerts, and shift scheduling.Key customers and partnershipsAs of November 2023, PayActiv’s platform was used by employees at over 4,000 businesses from industries such as retail and food services across the US, with some customers in Canada, Australia, the Philippines, and Brazil. Its clients include Walmart, Wayfair, Ibex Global and several others. It also entered into a partnership with US Bank in February 2022, where users of prepaid US Bank Focus Cards for payroll will be able to access their wages early.The company also has working partnerships with payment processors such as <a href="https://sp-edge.com/companies/23004">Fiserv</a> and <a href="https://sp-edge.com/companies/13061">Visa</a> to enable real-time transfer of earned wages to bank accounts of employees.

PayActiv

Based In the UK, Wagestream provides a financial wellness platform, offering a range of services including earned wage access, financial education, tools for savings, and pay and spend tracking. Wagestream’s tools are offered to employees through a mobile app, with an analytics platform for employers to monitor participation and financial resilience of staff.Employees can access their earned wages using the app by paying a flat fee of GBP 1.95 (USD 2.50) per withdrawal. The company’s platform has integrations with several payroll and timekeeping systems, enabling organizations to deploy Wagestream into their payroll process.Wagestream acquired 1) Australian earned-wage access startup Earnd in March 2021 to enter into the Australian market. 2) a credit card startup Keebos, in October 2023, to integrate Keebos credit score building platform (that uses open banking data) with Wagestream’s core offerings.Key customers and partnershipsAs of February 2024, Wagestream had a global user base of more than 3 million, which included more than 1,000 corporate customers in industries such as the retail, hospitality, and healthcare sectors. The company has offices in the US, UK, Spain, and Australia and some notable employers include Burger King, Pizza Hut, Crate &amp; Barrel, Bupa, University of Chicago, Popeyes, and National Health Service UK.The company also partnered with French Insuretch provider Wakam in August 2023, to introduce income protection coverage to its users.

Wagestream

Cleo offers tools for budgeting, and provides personalized spending and savings advice by connecting to a user's bank account and applying machine learning algorithms to analyze spending habits and transaction history. The app also provides access to an interactive chatbot which users can query to obtain on-demand suggestions (which has been supported by an in-house large language model since 2023).&nbsp;The platform also offers additional features such as a secured card to build credit score, direct debits, and salary advances.Cleo operates a subscription-based pricing on its budgeting and savings tools, with fee-based pricing on its cash advance offerings targeted at gig workers and workers with poor credit. The platform charges monthly subscription fees in the range of USD 1.99 - 5.99 on Cleo Plus offering and charges USD 10.99-14.99 on Cleo build offering.Cleo’s target market is the Gen-Z segment of the population and as of October 2023, the company had 7 million users, (up from 4 million in December 2020) and had USD 72.3 million annual recurring revenue (which was up 2.4x YoY)

Cleo

FinFit offers a financial wellness benefit platform for employers that uses predictive AI, and includes tools for employees to budget, track spending, set savings goals and obtain personalized financial assessments. The platform also provides access to certified financial counselors to obtain one-on-one financial advice. In addition to financial coaching, the company also offers services such as tools to manage student loan debt, get early access to earned wages, and obtain low-cost short-term loans backed by the employee’s salary. In April 2023, Fitfit merged with the US operations of UK-based financial wellness platform <a href="https://sp-edge.com/companies/342361">Salary Finance</a>. The two companies aim to launch a combined platform in the US under the Finfit brand.FinFit operates a subscription-based pricing model, and charges employers in the range of USD 0.30–1.00 per employee per month based on the size of the organizations and number of employees. The platform also generates revenue through interest income by charging users interest in the range of 7.9%–24.9% APR on its loans. It charges fixed interest on its lines of credit.As of March 2024, FinFit was reported to be serving more than 500,000 employees (up from 150,000 in 2020).Key customers and partnershipsIn September 2024, FinFit <a href="https://sp-edge.com/updates/33696">partnered with</a> <a href="https://sp-edge.com/companies/945256">Sunny Day Fund</a>, a financial support platform, to offer emergency savings accounts for employees through its SafetyNet platform. In August 2024, FinFit <a href="https://sp-edge.com/updates/32581">partnered with</a> <a href="https://sp-edge.com/companies/493140">isolved</a>, a human capital management platform, to expand product reach.

FinFit

Offers interactive platforms or apps for employers to provide personalized financial advice to its employees. These also include tools for budgeting, tracking earnings, and managing expenses.

Provides a platform for employers to offer its employees an alternative to payday loans. Can either be early access to wages already earned or emergency access to interest-free funds which are settled through the paycheck.

Consumers can use these applications to obtain personalized financial advice, automate savings, create budgets, and track and manage their spending.

Operates a B2B SaaS model to support employers with offering various fringe benefits to employees

PROMINENT_CATEGORY

<div>

Candidly, previously known as FutureFuel.io, has introduced "Onward", a debt optimization tool for its financial wellness platform. The tool can be used by providers of workplace financial solutions such as 401(k) and 403(b) recordkeepers, and retirement plan advisors.

The Onward tool, initially available solely as an API, offers real-time, customized decision support. Combined with actionable steps, the tool aids users in reducing consumer debt and re-investing those savings into deposits that yield interest.

The Onward API is designed to be highly flexible and can be effortlessly integrated into a firm's existing offerings, such as HSAs, FSAs, brokerage accounts, IRAs, and retirement accounts. Based on technology with a pending patent and rooted in behavioral economics, Onward addresses the real-world financial hurdles people face managing their money.

</div>

Candidly (formerly FutureFuel.io)

About EDGE

Contact Us

Resources

Area of Focus

Technology Research Made Effortless