Invest Detroit Ventures is committed to supporting the entrepreneurial ecosystem with capital, on-going mentorship, and community engagement. We implement targeted venture development programs to help build and promote scalable businesses in the region. Their team is committed to growing a robust tech community in Detroit and throughout Michigan. They are collectively focused on implementing an investment strategy that is inclusive and supportive of minority, immigrant, and women entrepreneurs.

Invest Detroit Ventures

The Impact Seat is a venture capital and management consulting firm that invests in certain sectors like B2B, health care, education, artificial intelligence, and business solutions.

The Impact Seat

Reseda Group is a wholly-owned CUSO (Credit Union Service Organization) of MSU Federal Credit Union (MSUFCU).

Reseda Group

Founded in 2014, Red Cedar Ventures (RCV) is a wholly-owned subsidiary of the MSU Research Foundation and the first venture fund in mid-Michigan. RCV makes early-stage investments in high-tech startups commercializing intellectual property created at Michigan State University. Red Cedar Ventures supports for funds: Pre-Seed Fund, Opportunity Fund, Opportunity II Fund, and Michigan Rise Pre-Seed Fund III.

Red Cedar Ventures

Cleo Capital is a venture capital company. The company focuses on making investments in early-stage and expanding start-up businesses.

Cleo Capital

Blue Leaf is an early Stage Venture Capital Investment Group. We help entrepreneurs grow their great ideas into even greater businesses.

Blue Leaf Ventures

gBETA is a program of nationally ranked startup accelerator gener8tor. gBETA is a free, seven-week accelerator for early-stage companies with local roots. Each program is capped at five teams, and requires no fees and no equity.

gbeta

Michigan Rise Pre-Seed Fund III invests in Michigan tech startups to help commercialize innovative technologies.  We are proud to partner with Michigan’s best and brightest tech entrepreneurs and further economic development in the Mitten State.  The Pre-Seed Fund III is administered by the Michigan State University Research Foundation through Michigan Rise which is a wholly-owned subsidiary of the Foundation.  Michigan Rise supports entrepreneurs and technology startups across Michigan through capital support, coaching, assistance with grant funding and more. The Michigan State University Research Foundation was formed in 1973 and is a 501(c)(3) non-profit organization that is charged with helping Michigan State University achieve its land grant mission related to economic development through the commercialization of new intellectual property. The Foundation oversees several entities involved in this activity including Red Cedar Ventures and Spartan Innovations.  Michigan Rise Pre-Seed Fund III is made possible with support from the Michigan Economic Development Corporation and Michigan State University Research Foundation. To apply for funding, please submit a brief application here: https://www.michiganrise.com/application

Michigan Rise

pocketnest

Pocketnest provides comprehensive financial planning in a tech platform primarily targeting genX and millennials. The company white-labels its software to financial institutions including banks, credit unions, investment advisors, insurance companies, and benefit providers. Based on psychology, behavioral science, and coaching, it helps users through all ten themes of personal finances, resulting in actionable to-do items and recommendations customized for each user.  The value to its financial enterprise-customers includes supplying them with personal, behavioral, and financial data about their consumers allowing them to serve more people, identify cross-sell opportunities, sell their products in its app and, ultimately, be more profitable.

Pocketnest provides a white-label financial wellness platform for millennials and Gen-Xers. The company licenses out its financial wellness platform to financial institutions such as banks, credit unions, wealth advisors, benefit providers, and employee wellness platforms, to expand its customer base and cross-sell opportunities. Pocketnest also provides a financial coaching solution that uses behavioral science and psychology to coach users by using 10 themes of financial wellness, which include investment, budgeting, estates and wills, college savings, debt management, taxes, credit, loans, retirement, and insurance.

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

Financial Wellness Tools

Pocketnest

Pocketnest Introduces AI-Powered Financial Companion

Pocketnest provides a white-label financial wellness platform for millennials and Gen-Xers. The company licenses out its financial wellness platform to financial institutions such as banks, credit unions, wealth advisors, benefit providers, and employee wellness platforms, to expand its customer base and cross-sell opportunities. Pocketnest also provides a financial coaching solution that uses behavioral science and psychology to coach users by using 10 themes of financial wellness, which include investment, budgeting, estates and wills, college savings, debt management, taxes, credit, loans, retirement, and insurance.Pocketnest <a href="https://sp-edge.com/updates/32135">launched Birdie</a>, a personalized financial companion that leverages GenAI to provide instant personalized financial advice, guidance, and educational content.Key customers and partnerships As of October 2023, the company served 44 institutional customers with over 100 white-labeled instances. Key customers include MSUFCU, 4Front Credit Union, Lake Trust Credit Union, the Foundation for Financial Wellness, and The Henry Ford. In December 2021, MSUFCU provided Pocketnest’s financial wellness platform to nearly 320,000 members, which increased their financial wellness by 30%. Pocketnest claims that organizations that license out its software save up to USD 50,000 annually, and serve up to 16x more users.

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.

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).

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>
 
 Slovenia's Pocketnest, a provider of white-label financial wellness solutions, introduces Birdie, a personalized financial assistant powered by GenAI. Birdie delivers up-to-date personalized financial advice, guidance, and educational content.
 Birdie becomes part of the Pocketnest platform as an offering to financial institutions to promote engagement with users. It dynamically integrates user data from connected bank accounts, financial records, behavioural trends, and preferences to deliver immediate and bespoke financial guidance.
 Birdie empowers users to inquire prompts such as "how much should I save for retirement?" and receive customized financial advice suited to their financial conditions, private banking and investment portfolios, and objectives.
 
</div>

Pocketnest

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