Fast-growing fintech company Happy Money wants to keep its customers smiling, with a new program that targets stress reduction during the pandemic with personal finance management and wellness activities.
Since 2009, the Tustin-based firm has built its business around loan products and smartphone apps that help users consolidate, reduce and eliminate high-interest credit card debt through partnerships with credit unions and other financial institutions.
It’s focused on a research- and psychology-based approach to wealth management, and since inception, has helped about 100,000 users pay off nearly $1.8 billion in debt.
It’s been growing quickly of late. Last year it raised a $70 million Series D round of funding with a $495 million valuation to spur growth.
Some of that money’s going to a new program it is rolling out this month.
Happy Money’s newest offering is a free, six-week program called “Peace” that goes beyond debt elimination tools to address financial stress for users and consumers at large, the company said.
“We know money is emotional and stressful, so we want to help our members in ways that go beyond their wallets,” Chief Executive Scott Saunders said.
The Peace program “looks further than someone’s finances to hone in on how they can have a healthier relationship with money that improves their overall well-being and happiness.”
Payoff
While the program might serve as an avenue to increase its user membership, Happy Money has seen no shortage of demand in recent months.
In fact, “the quarantine and the economic disruption caused by the pandemic have created an increased need for digitally native banking platforms and services. That, along with a shift in consumers’ desire to deleverage debt has created a real demand for Happy Money’s products,” Saunders told the Business Journal by email.
“Not only that, but the crisis has exposed the weakness of mindless capitalism and a system of ‘sad money’ that only serves to keep people in debt.”
The company has continued to grow its user base for its main product, called “Payoff,” which was also the name of the company until 2017, while adding new credit union partners such as Teachers Federal Credit Union and GreenState Credit Union.
Other partners include Alliant, First Tech and Technology Credit Union.
Happy Money posted about $55 million in revenue last year, up from $36 million the year prior. Its current pace of sales equates to nearly $100 million in annual revenue, officials said.
“Our business not only gives us a structural advantage to weather the economic downturn, but provides a win-win for our members too: we grow when our members pay down debt,” added Saunders.
Peace & Joy
The Peace program is the first of its kind that is “designed to address people’s individual relationship with money, based on their personality,” Saunders said.
After completing a personality assessment and financial stress questionnaire, users are given weekly exercises that can be completed in 10 minutes or less, based on one of 10 unique personality profiles.
Exercises include muscle relaxation, challenging negative thoughts, problem-solving, and savoring small pleasures.
Peace was created based on two research studies that focused on how people are emotionally faring amid the pandemic.
Happy Money conducted a study in May through July, during which it collected responses on financial stress from 5,000 participants on a monthly basis.
The study showed one of the leading causes of stress during the pandemic has been income disruption, as well as increased credit card use due to a lack of savings.
The new offering is an extension of Happy Money’s user-based research and programs; its “Joy” mobile app lets consumers rank their purchases in terms of happiness and sadness to determine how spending impacts their overall happiness.
