Why We Invested: Power
I live and die by my Marriott Bonvoy Amex card (R.I.P. beloved SPG AmEx). I got addicted to points early in life, as a consultant fresh out of college. Now, with a family of 4, those points are an integral part of our never-ending travels. But if we’re being honest, I’m part of a dying breed.
Trading loyalty to hotel chains or department stores for points and occasional discounts was a popular sport in the past, but is passé in the modern era of affinity brands.
The sneakers you choose aren’t just a fashion statement, they’re an expression of your values. The mattress you sleep on has become a commentary on how much you trust technology (hello Eight Sleep). Airbnb has become a verb. But, unlike with Marriott, there’s no Airbnb loyalty program. Yet.
Power aims to fix that.
Coming out of stealth this week, Power is a modern credit card platform for modern brands. Power serves companies that want to control every aspect of their card and loyalty programs, and that are redefining what “loyalty” means today.
And loyalty matters. Emotionally connected consumers have a 306% greater LTV than “satisfied” consumers (smrtr). This is the moment for brands to really consider how they can form those emotional connections. According to the National Retail Foundation, nearly half of consumers choose brands based on alignment of values (Newsweek).
Power co-founders Randy Fernando and Andrew Dust understand the value of this. They met while working at Acorns, an investment app with a large and rabid user base. They also understand the growing trend towards Contextual Finance. Randy and Andrew helped Acorns create investment opportunities that seamlessly linked with users’ existing behaviors.
We immediately found common ground with Power around the Anthemis thesis that consumers are looking to expand their relationships with brands and employers beyond simple purchases and transactions, starting with financial products.
Despite the proliferation of fintechs and services designed to help brands easily launch card products, it’s still an incredibly cumbersome process. Individually, each of these companies may promise flexibility and customizability, but once brands start layering services into their stacks, the resulting feature sets are often quite limited. In isolation, the quirks and hurdles of each provider might seem trivial, but once stacked, they choke brands’ ability to launch with speed. And the economics have been eaten up along the way.
Power is different. It’s a true full-stack card issuance platform that was built from the ground up. With that comes ultimate flexibility and speed.
The Power platform supports consumer programs, corporate cards, and banking products. Unconstrained from traditional points and vanilla card-linked offers, Power’s customers can reimagine rewards to better fit what loyalty truly means for their customers, users, and employees.
Power’s vision is to not only launch iconic credit card programs for today’s most innovative brands, but to fundamentally reshape the global commerce landscape.
We’re thrilled to be able to lead Power’s Seed round, and we’re excited to join them on their journey to reinvent credit cards.
If you’re interested in joining this journey too, there’s good news: Power is hiring! Check out their open positions here: https://boards.greenhouse.io/powerfinance
