Pillar
Pillar founder and CEO Michael Bloch
- On Thursday, student loan management startup Pillar announced it raised $5.5 million in seed funding in a round led by Kleiner Perkins.
- The funding round included a who's who of individual investors from startup and fintech backgrounds, such as: Adam Nash, the former CEO of Wealthfront and Acorns board member; Noah Weiss, former SVP of Product at Foursquare; Misha Esipov, CEO and co-founder of Nova Credit; and Robinhood's Head of Growth, Patrick Kavanagh, and Head of Finance, Nadia Asoyan.
- Rainfall Ventures, Great Oaks VC, Financial Venture Studio, Kairos, and Day One Ventures also participated in the round.
- See the deck that won over some of Silicon Valley's highest profile venture capital investors.
- Visit Business Insider's homepage for more stories.
Although the student loan crisis continues to hang over an entire generation's finances, entrepreneurs and investors see an opportunity for disruption and healthy returns.
Pillar, one of several startups aimed at managing loan repayment using machine learning and artificial intelligence, announced Thursday it had raised $5.5 million in Seed funding from Silicon Valley giant-maker Kleiner Perkins. Because it isn't in the refinancing business like some competitors, Pillar is not incentivized to drag out loan repayments to turn a profit, according to founder and CEO Michael Bloch.
The round included a who's who of individual investors from startup and fintech backgrounds, such as: Adam Nash, the former CEO of Wealthfront and Acorns board member; Noah Weiss, former SVP of Product at Foursquare; Misha Esipov, CEO and co-founder of Nova Credit; and Robinhood's Head of Growth, Patrick Kavanagh, and Head of Finance, Nadia Asoyan. Rainfall Ventures, Great Oaks VC, Financial Venture Studio, Kairos, and Day One Ventures also participated in the round.
"We actually didn't plan to fundraise at the time that we did," Bloch told Business Insider. "However, some VCs that we had gotten to know since starting Pillar made early offers to invest. We had gotten to know the team at Kleiner Perkins quite well over the last few months. They've made some amazing investments in fintech companies like Robinhood, Plaid, and Tally. We decided that we wanted them onboard as the lead for our round."
Here's the deck Pillar used to land some of Silicon Valley's biggest names for its Seed round:
