Bridge Money raises $5.8m in seed funding

By Edlyn Cardoza

Bridge Money, Inc., a first-of-its-kind FinTech company empowering lower-income Americans to earn supplemental income, announced that it has raised $5.8 million in seed funding led by TMV. Founder Collective, Kapor Capital, Acumen America, Bread & Butter Ventures, Revolution’s Rise of the Rest Seed Fund, Plug and Play Ventures, Basecamp Fund (Alumni Ventures) and Ulu Ventures, among others, also participated in the funding round. The investment will help Bridge execute its next phase of development and expansion, including adding to its robust lineup of in-app money-making opportunities, sourcing and executing additional third-party partnerships, and growing its roster of talent.

Today, U.S. inflation is at its highest level in 40 years and is disproportionately affecting over 100 million Americans in lower income brackets. As the only FinTech company focused on boosting the asset side of the ledger for consumers, Bridge enables its members to fight back inflation and generate meaningful supplemental income. Members earn money by linking an existing debit card or bank account in the Bridge app and sharing fully consented and anonymised data with third-party businesses through various in-app money-making activities, such as cashback, surveys, ad viewing, referrals, and raffles, among others. The most active Bridge members earn over $200 a month using the app, and earnings can be deposited directly into members’ bank accounts.

“Consumer financial services in America are in the early innings of a tectonic secular shift to digital-first offerings. And yet, nearly all innovation to date has centered on credit products, which do not solve the most critical problem facing lower income consumers: a lack of money,” said Lalit Janak, Founder & Chief Executive Officer of Bridge. “Bridge seeks to help its members grow supplemental income, rather than a credit balance, which we believe will gradually help facilitate upward economic mobility for millions of Americans.”

Since its founding in 2019, Bridge has partnered with leading financial services platforms, including Plaid, Unit, and Visa, to power its unique product offering.

“For years, companies have been gathering data from users every minute of every day without any reward or compensation being provided in return. As we enter what will soon become a cookie-less digital landscape with an increased focus on data privacy, access to zero-party sentiment data will become even more difficult to obtain and even more valuable to consumer brands, products, and companies across the U.S.,” added Soraya Darabi, General Partner and Co-founder of TMV. “Bridge is the ideal solution for companies and consumers alike – consumers easily earn supplementary income while companies retrieve critical customer sentiment data. Lalit and the entire Bridge team are working to reimagine the future of financial inclusion, and we are proud to support them in executing on this ambitious mission, which aligns with our goal at TMV: to back early-stage founders building businesses beyond the bottom line.”

Janak concluded: “We are grateful for this strong vote of confidence in our purpose-driven platform from a premier group of investors. We look forward to leveraging this capital to uncover even more ways for our members to earn money while continuing to scale.”

Bridge’s seed round follows commitments from prominent angel investors, including Margo Georgiadis, former Discover Card CMO and Ancestry.com CEO; Abhi Dhar, CTO of TransUnion; Daren Cotter, Founder and CEO of InboxDollars; Aaron Rankin, CTO of Sprout Social; and Todd E. Benson, former Head of Private Equity at Citigroup, among others.

Bridge is building a company for the reality of America, backed by a team that reflects just that: professionals of incredibly diverse economic, social, and geographic backgrounds not typically found in consumer FinTech.