Mint Announces Serioes A Funding for Money Management Software

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Martha Shaughnessy
AtomicPR for Mint
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Mint Signs 50,000 Users in First Month

 

San Francisco, Calif., October 16, 2007 – Mint (www.mint.com), the fresh, easy and intelligent way for people to manage their money online, today announced that the company closed $4.7 million in Series A financing in a round led by Shasta Ventures, and including First Round Capital and a group of prominent individuals, including Ram Shriram, early investor and founding board member of Google, Inc. Since announcing its public beta on September 18, 2007, Mint has:

• Signed 50,000 users,
• Organized over $1 billion in user transactions,
• Identified nearly $40 million in savings opportunities.

Mint also announced that it has added two senior executives to the company’s management team. Donna Wells joined as chief marketing officer. Ms. Wells was previously vice president of corporate marketing and acting CMO at Intuit and senior vice president of marketing at Expedia. Ms. Wells has also held senior marketing positions at Charles Schwab & Co. and American Express during a twenty year career in personal financial services and ecommerce. Aaron Forth was named vice president of product. He was previously director of advertising, product and infrastructure at eBay. Mr. Forth brings ten years’ of success in software product development and implementation to the Mint leadership team.

Ms. Wells and Mr. Forth join Anton Commissaris, vice president of business development and David K. Michaels, vice president of engineering, who joined the company earlier this year. Mr. Commissaris has over fifteen years’ experience in the software and Internet sectors and as an attorney at Wilson Sonsini Goodrich & Rosati. Mr. Michaels has over ten years’ experience building secure, distributed, fault-tolerant systems, most recently leading the development of server products for PGP.

“Mint.com’s mission is to provide people with an effective way to manage their money that’s so easy, they’ll actually use it. And it’s free,” said Aaron Patzer, founder and chief executive officer, Mint. “Our strong consumer acceptance, TechCrunch and Finovate awards and the caliber of investors and management team the company has been able to attract are encouraging signals that the market is ready for the Mint alternative.”

Market Opportunity

The market potential for Mint is strong. Over 65 million people in the U.S. use online banking to keep track of their finances today. But since the average American has more than four bank relationships, it’s virtually impossible for them to get to a complete view of account balances and spending. Others purchase and try desktop software packages, but struggle with the lengthy setup process and hours of tedious data entry that they require. Mint’s refreshing value proposition provides a clear, comprehensive and always-current picture of all of a user’s spending, effortlessly. And it offers intelligent, personalized suggestions to save and earn more money, as well.

“Mint provides an easier and more valuable solution to a problem millions of Americans struggle with today, and we’re very pleased with its reception in the market,” said Tod Francis, Managing Director of Shasta Ventures. “Between the market need, the strength of Mint’s technology and the caliber of the management team, we think the company has great potential.”

Investors

Shasta Ventures led Mint’s Series A funding round, which closed in April, 2007. It’s accomplished partners, drawn from NEA, Battery Ventures and Trinity Ventures have been early investors in numerous successful online consumer services businesses, including: Blue Nile, Baby Center and NextCard. First Round Capital, a prominent investor in early stage companies, also participated in the Series A financing, increasing their ownership percentage from their initial seed round investment in 2006. Ram Shriram was named #4 Top Tech Dealmaker by Forbes in 2007.

Mint.com

Mint.com is designed to make managing personal finances virtually effortless for the user – and it’s free. It takes less than five minutes to get started; users register anonymously using only a valid email address, and then securely connect to their online bank, credit union and credit card accounts. Mint does the rest; users never need to import or synch any data. Mint securely downloads transaction data from more than 3,500 banks, credit unions and credit card providers on a daily basis. It applies patent-pending technology and proprietary algorithms to compile and categorize transactions, providing users with a unified view of all account activity with high degree of accuracy and detail in a single, easy-to-understand interface.

An advanced alerting system proactively lets users know about unusual activity, low balances, bank fees and charges, and upcoming bills. Beyond showing users where their money goes, Mint alsoprovides specific, individualized suggestions that can save them real money – the average beta user was shown $1,000 in potential savings during their first session.

Safety and Security

Mint provides the same level of online data security as top US banks through a partnership with Yodlee, the leading provider of online banking services to major financial institutions for nearly ten years. Mint’s privacy and security policies and systems have been certified by TRUSTe and VeriSign. Mint never asks for a personal identity, requiring only a valid email address.

About Mint http://www.mint.com

Mint.com is the fresh, easy and intelligent way for people to manage their money online. And it’s free.

Designed to be virtually effortless for the user, Mint.com takes less than five minutes to get started. Users register anonymously using only a valid email address and Mint does the rest, securely downloading transaction data from more than 3,500 banks, credit unions and credit card providers on a daily basis. Users never need to import or synch data. Mint applies patent-pending technology and proprietary algorithms to compile and categorize transactions, providing a unified view of all account activity; alerting users to unusual activity, low balances, bank fees and charges and upcoming bills; and giving users personalized suggestions for significant savings opportunities.

Mint’s management team includes experienced executives drawn from the ranks of Charles Schwab & Co., eBay, Expedia, Intuit, PGP and other leaders in the finance, security and software spaces. Investors include top venture capital firms and prominent individuals associated with companies including Blue Nile, Google, Intuit, PassMark Security, PayPal, Yahoo! and others.

For more information on Mint.com’s free online personal finance service, please visit www.mint.com.

About Shasta Ventures (http://www.shastaventures.com)

Shasta Ventures is a venture capital firm focused on helping build technology enabled companies that offer unique products and services to their customers. Shasta Ventures is located in Menlo Park, CA and manages over $200 million. Tod Francis, Managing Director, serves on Mint’s Board of Directors. Mr. Francis has over 20 years’ experience with consumer companies and has invested previously in many successful consumer internet businesses, including: Blue Nile, BabyCenter, WeddingChannel, LoopNet and LogoWorks.

About First Round Capital (http://firstroundcapital.com)

First Round Capital is a prominent investor in early stage companies, including: Aggregate Knowledge, Jingle Networks (1-800-FREE411), Krugle, Riya, StumbleUpon, and VideoEgg. First Round Capital has offices in Philadelphia and San Francisco. Rob Hayes, Partner, serves on Mint’s Board of Directors and Josh Kopelman, Managing Partner, serves as Board Advisor.

About Yodlee (http://www.yodlee.com)

Yodlee’s proven consumer banking, payments solutions, wealth management and risk management applications unify personal financial account information to deliver a simple, centralized and secure way for consumers to manage all of their financial tasks — any time, anywhere. More than 100 financial institutions and portals, including AOL, Bank of America, Fidelity, JPMorgan Chase, Merrill Lynch, and MSN, offer Yodlee- powered solutions to millions of customers worldwide. Yodlee operates in the United States and Europe and is headquartered in Redwood City, California.