According to SEC filings, St. Louis based FinLocker has raised a $10.389 million round from the St. Louis Arch Angels and other undisclosed investors.
FinLocker is a software tool for individual consumers seeking to improve their financial position and literacy. The company specifically helps aggregate a consumer’s financial data and then analyzes and recommends mortgage and other financial products based on that financial history. Consumers benefit because the firm provides unique, non-standard advice based on an individual’s history, but lenders also benefit because FinLocker helps generate leads and cross-sell financial products.
The company recently introduced their FinLocker personal financial assistant. The product provides a secure, financial locker for managing financial data – including accounts & transactions, readiness evaluations, credit scoring, and other key tools for the individual.
According to a Vantage Score article from earlier this year, Peter Esparrago, FinLocker’s CEO stated, “Consumers want control over their data and are willing to share it but expect to receive personalized offers and recommendations in exchange.” Much of FinLocker’s current business is premised on streamlining and improving the mortgage origination process. According to Esparrago, “The battle for the mortgage customer is happening much earlier in the process…at the point of thought, not at mortgage application time. Lenders are starting to use technologies such as FinLocker to engage consumers at point of thought to get them financially ready and educated.
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Esparrago, who has also worked at Cultivation Capital since 2012 (according to Linkedin), also said that FinLocker has dramatically increased its intellectual property portfolio – having been granted three patents in the couple of years. This strong backbone of technology lies at the heart of how FinLocker can help consumers build a stronger understanding of their financial picture and apply for the best possible type of mortgage or other financial product.
This has led many investors to provide outside capital to help spur FinLocker forward.
In their annual report from 2018, the Arch Angels described their cumulative investment in FinLocker as being $1.945 million. So, this additional investment in 2019 has significantly raised the Arch Angels position in FinLocker. In addition, to the Arch Angels, St. Louis based Cultivation Capital has been a significant funder of FinLocker and Cliff Holekamp is on the company’s board, according to Crunchbase.
The company continues St. Louis strong fall with more than twelve deals since September 21, 2019 – totaling more than $60 million in venture capital fundings. These companies span the industrial spectrum to include bioscience, ag tech, edtech, and fintech.
Many have ties to earlier fundings through one of the incubators, accelerators, or local programs. For example, FinLocker is a graduate of SixThirty which is described on their website as a “venture fund that invests in early-stage enterprise technology companies from around the world – building FinTech, InsurTech, and Cybersecurity solutions, and connects them with corporate incumbents through its Go-To-Market Program.” This program and fund has been widely supported by the St. Louis community and includes corporate partners – Allianz, Edward Jones, Ernst & Young, and numerous St. Louis based banks.
For more information on Finlocker – check out their website at https://finlocker.com.
