Brightside

Improving financial health for working families

Company: Brightside provides an employer-based financial care platform intended to drive meaningful ROI for employers by improving the financial health of working families.

HQ Location & Year Founded: Chandler, Arizona, 2017

Founder: Tom Spann, Co-founder and CEO, is serial entrepreneur with a social mission, having previously founded and led the healthcare company Accolade from inception to IPO, over the course of nearly 13 years. Previously, he served as Managing Partner at Accenture, where he worked for more than 15 years, including a stint as President of the Accenture Foundation. Tom holds a bachelor’s degree from the Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania. 

Funds Raised and VC Investors: $75 million from Alumni Ventures, Andreessen Horowitz, Clocktower Technology Ventures, Comcast Ventures, Financial Solutions Lab, Obvious Ventures, Trinity Ventures

• Where did the idea for Brightside originate?

I was previously CEO of Accolade, a healthcare navigation company for company employees. A colleague brought to my attention that something like Accolade was needed for poor financial health, which was costing people an average of $3,000-$4,000 per year. For people without savings, many employee benefits are simply not helpful or relevant. For example, contributing to a retirement savings account with employer matches is not very useful for people who are in debt or living paycheck to paycheck. Data shows that 44% of people skipped a doctor’s visit last year because of lack of funds. This results in more stressed out workers, who are less productive and twice as likely to turnover. This costs both the employee and their employer. I felt that mental health and financial health go hand in hand and wanted to solve the financial part of that as my next mission.

• What is the key problem that Brightside intends to solve? 

We solve a major problem for both the employer and employee. For employers, it is about financial equity. This is a major DEI issue since Black people have 10% of the net worth of White people while women are 50% more likely than men to be in poor financial health. We are on a mission to improve financial health for working families by opening the front door to financial services as a company-sponsored employee benefit.

• How are you most differentiated as a service?

We offer real humans at the front end who are financial assistants who can help employees by understanding their financial goals and barriers and help them navigate options to make better financial decisions. They help find the best financial products for their families by building a relationship of trust that is not based on any hidden incentives like financial product sales commissions. We start with little wins and go from there. Our platform of financial solutions and products are also linked to the paycheck. This reduces or eliminates the need for credit checks loans on, allows for low interest loans, and we can also offer savings plans that are linked to each paycheck. 

On top of this, we provide an app that ties this all together by linking a person’s credit report with credit goals and monitoring savings. This results not just in financial wellness, but effectively both urgent and primary care for financial health. People often face unexpected hurdles like being in danger of losing an apartment or inability to afford a car repair. We take the opportunity to build a long term relationship. We find solutions to questions and problems. For example, for one user, we discovered an $8,000 community benefit that was available to one woman that allowed her to pay her rent and she didn’t know about. Use behavioral science to prepare users to start saving for the next emergency. We can help people negotiate a car repair price, find the right car insurance and dig up community benefits that people often are not even aware of.

• What are the company’s key accomplishments to date?

We have grown to serve over 300,000 employees and families. Our NPS is over 90, demonstrating very high user satisfaction. We put an average of $120 into the pocket of our customers and help them realize true financial health improvement. We are the only company in the employer financial health market that measures population financial health by looking at debt reduction, credit availability and more for people who use Brightside versus those who don’t. We have seen a 34% reduction of people with subprime credit scores relative to people who didn’t use us and a 40%-plus reduction in employer turnover across all segments of our user base.

• What lies ahead in the plans for Brightside?

We had 10x growth in 2022 and aim to triple that again in 2023. We will be expanding the products on our platform, for example to help people save money in the auto purchasing process. We are also considering geographic expansion to serve customers globally.

Ron’s Take

Poor financial health is often not a matter of lack of will, but of availability of tools, resources and education that enable one to make smart financial decisions. For employees, this means the ability to save money consistently and borrow at reasonable rates when needed. For employers, financial health translates to a happier workforce that is more productive and less prone to leaving their job. A number of companies are bringing innovations to market that will empower individuals and families to be liberated within the financial system. By developing relationships with its users, including at the human level, and without conflicts of interest, Brightside is one tool that employers will be served in bringing to their employees to generate net positive results for all.

Disclaimer: Alumni Ventures invested in the Series B round of Brightside in fall 2022.