Albert raises $50M to improve financial wellness for all
At Albert, we do something no one else does: we deliver personalized financial advice from our team of real, human finance experts — our Geniuses — at a radically affordable price.
Over the last year we expanded on our key features, introducing Portfolio by Genius to make investing effortless, helping people avoid overdrafts by rolling out Albert Instant, rebuilding our automated budgeting feature, and expanding the topics our Geniuses cover. To meet demand, we more than doubled our team.
Since we launched in 2016, more than 3 million people have entrusted Albert with improving their financial well-being. Today, Albert is thrilled to announce a $50M Series B financing, led by CapitalG, Alphabet’s independent growth fund, with participation from existing investors. We’ll use this funding to keep powering our mission of guiding hardworking people to the right financial decisions.
We’re building a new financial service
We’re solving a problem no other fintech app has successfully solved: building a holistic, mobile financial advisor that Americans can actually afford.
And the need has never been more urgent. The average Albert customer has a median income of about $50,000 per year, lives paycheck to paycheck and struggles with building financial security for themselves and their families.
To address this problem, we made financial advice affordable. Customers pay what they think is fair with a minimum of $4/month for Albert Genius. They can chat directly with a financial expert about any money topic, build a personalized financial plan, and access the intelligent, automated investing of Portfolio by Genius for no additional cost.
Albert’s free features include automatic savings, financial health monitoring, budgeting and detailed spending reports, and Albert Instant, which offers customers a cash advance against their paycheck to help avoid overdrafts. (If you need money right away, we can expedite funds for a fee.)
Empathy meets automation
Everyone’s unique money situation demands empathy — so we believe the best financial advice experiences are human.
To date, our Geniuses have sent and received more than 10 million text messages tackling customer questions like, “Hey, can I afford to go out tonight?” and questions about lowering debt, insurance recommendations, and how to save for a vacation, school, or a new home. Our customers’ success is Albert’s success, so our Geniuses are of course incentivized to offer the best possible guidance.
A traditional financial advisor will hand you a pdf of financial chores that are tedious to do once — let alone every month. At Albert, we automate your financial life. Our software builds up your savings, invests your money, helps you avoid overdrafts, lowers your bills, and automates your budget. And yes, automation works: The Fed showed that 47% of Americans cannot afford an unexpected $400 expense. After 6 months of using Albert, Genius customers have an average of about $400 saved up.
The future
Powered by the recent funding, we’ll grow our model of human financial guidance while expanding automation to even more aspects of our customers’ financial lives. We envision a world in which no one, regardless of income or net worth, has to worry about making the wrong financial decision.
If you’re compelled by our vision, we’d love to hear from you. Check us out on our company page.
