INSUBCONTINENT EXCLUSIVE:
Propel, maker of the Fresh EBT app for managing food stamps and other benefits, announced today that it has raised $12.8 million in Series A
funding.Fresh EBT (the EBT stands for the Electronics Transfer Benefit card, which is how food stamp participants receive their benefits)
allows users to check their food stamp/SNAP balance and find stores that accept food stamps
Users can also track their spending
The app is free for consumers and government agencies — the company makes money through digital coupons and a job board.Propel says Fresh
EBT is now used by more than 1.5 million Americans each month, and that more than 30,000 people have applied for jobs this year that they
discovered through the app
For example, the announcement quotes one user, Tracy B
from Fairland, Virginia — she described Fresh EBT as her “personal financial adviser,” and also said she used it to find discount zoo
tickets, and even her current job.When Propel raised its $4 million seed round last year, founder and CEO Jimmy Chen described his
mission as building “a more user-friendly safety net.” He argued that there’s no conflict between Propel’s social mission and its
structure as a for-profit business, a position he reiterated in today’s announcement.“Our investors are world-class experts in their
respective fields,” he said
“They share an understanding of the challenges of low-income Americans and a belief that Propel can build a massive business by fighting
poverty.”Those investors include Nyca Partners, which led the round
Andreessen Horowitz, Kleiner Perkins Caufield Byers, Omidyar Network, Alexa von Tobel and Kevin Durant’s Thirty Five Ventures also
participated.“It’s not hard to see the huge opportunity in building better financial services for low-income people,” said Nyca
Managing Partner Hans Morris in a statement
“We just haven’t seen many companies in this space that have an opportunity to have such a large impact at massive scale
That’s why we’re so excited to invest in Propel.”
