Today I’m thrilled to officially announce our $12.5 million Series A fundraise, led by Canapi Ventures and with participation from our existing investors Bling Capital, Greycroft, RRE, and Walkabout.
We started Capitalize in 2020 with a mission to help Americans save for retirement. We believed then, and still do today, that saving for retirement is too complicated. While many Americans get access to a retirement account through their employer, we’re still largely on our own to figure out how much to save and what to invest in. Those tasks become even harder as we change jobs and deal with one 401(k) account after another.
What’s worse, we’re forced to use an antiquated “rollover” process in order to transfer the money we’ve saved in those employer-linked accounts whenever we switch jobs. The friction in the 401(k) rollover process leads millions of Americans to just ‘cash out’ their 401(k)s prematurely rather than deal with the hassle. It causes millions more to just leave their accounts behind — their savings eroded by fees and sub-optimal investment allocations that grow stale over time.
So we decided to do something about it. We built a platform to help people instantly find their old 401(k)s and consolidate them into an IRA of their choice — a platform that combines our proprietary technology and tireless customer service team.
Since our launch, we’ve processed almost $10 million of rollovers for Americans across the country. More important than the metrics, though, is the confidence we’ve given our customers that their retirement finances are in good shape after using our service.
Our talented, mission-driven team comes to work every day focused on helping our customers — regardless of how much money is in their accounts. We’re incredibly grateful for the trust of those customers. It’s what motivates us to keep improving our product and recruiting more people to our mission. For those interested in helping us fix the retirement savings system, we’re hiring across the board and would love to meet you: openings here.
We’re also grateful for the trust of our partners. We work with some of the best financial institutions in the country and, increasingly, employers, financial advisors, and channel partners. We’re excited to keep building those relationships as we collectively work to make saving for retirement easier.
We’re tackling a big problem and we relish going after it with talented, like-minded, high-integrity people. That’s why we’re so excited to welcome Canapi Ventures as an investor and to officially announce this $12.5 million Series A round. Canapi is a team of investors with deep financial services expertise. They know what it takes to build a lasting financial institution and we’re proud to have them in our corner.
We’re ready to put this capital to good use and reach more customers who need help finding and consolidating their retirement accounts. But that’s not where we’re stopping. We’re keen to add new features that help them better manage their retirement savings over time.
We’re inspired by the response and by the impact our platform has already had. While we’re in the early stages of our mission, and we have a significant amount of work ahead of us, we’re energized by the challenge of modernizing how we save for retirement.
We thank all our users, team members, and partners for joining us on the journey so far. We’re excited for all that’s ahead.
Gaurav Sharma
CEO, Co-Founder, Capitalize
