First Round Capital and Top Angel Investors Back Company

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Contact:
Martha Shaughnessy
AtomicPR for Mint
martha@atomicpr.com
415.402.0230

First Round Capital and Top Angel Investors Back Company

 

San Francisco, Calif., September 18, 2007 – Mint (www.mint.com), the fresh, easy and intelligent way for people to manage their money online, today previews its free service at TechCrunch 40. Mint was selected to participate in TechCrunch 40 – a showcase of the world’s hottest new startups – from among more than 700 applicants from 26 different countries.

Where Mint fits

Mint is for busy people who want an effortless way to see where their money goes; receive email and SMS bill reminders and alerts; and find savings worth an average of $1,000 within minutes of setup. Until Mint, people have really had only two ways to manage their money: online banking and personal finance software. 65 million people in the U.S. use online banking today. But since the average American has more than four bank relationships, it’s difficult to get to a complete view of spending just using these services. Others try desktop software – ranging in price from $30 to $100—but many give up from frustration with the lengthy setup process and hours of tedious data entry that are required. The Mint experience is more convenient than online banking, and delivers more value than desktop software. Mint is the world’s first free, online, fully automatic way to manage all your checking, savings, and credit accounts in one place.

Mint is the free, easy and intelligent way to manage your money online

Mint is designed to be virtually effortless for the user. It applies patent-pending technology and proprietary algorithms to compile financial data from all the user’s bank and credit accounts into a single, easy-to-use and uniquely powerful online budget service.

  • It takes less than five minutes to get started on Mint. Users register anonymously using only a valid email address, and then add their log-ins for online bank, credit union and credit card accounts. Mint does the rest – users never need to import or synch any data.
  • Each night, Mint securely downloads transaction data from more than 3,500 banks, credit unions and credit card providers, giving users a unified view of all account activity in a single, easy-to-understand interface. Mint’s patent-pending categorization technology automatically identifies and organizes transactions, showing users with amazing precision how much they spend on gas, groceries, parking, rent, restaurants, DVD rentals and more.
  • An advanced alerting system proactively lets users know about unusual activity, low balances, unwanted fees and charges, and upcoming bills.
  • Beyond showing users where their money goes, Mint provides specific, individualized suggestions that can save them real money.
    • Mint constantly searches through a proprietary database of thousands of up-to-date offers from hundreds of providers. As a result, users always see the best interest rate on bank accounts and credit cards, and a lower price on everyday bills like phone, internet, and wireless plans.
    • For example, if a user is holding $20,000 in a bank account that’s earning no interest, Mint might recommend a higher interest rate savings account from ING or HSBC. Acting on that suggestion
      could mean over $900 in additional interest income over the year.
    • During our private beta period, Mint found users an average of $1, 000 in savings opportunities
      within minutes of setup.
  • Mint is accessible anytime over the web or by cell phone.
  • Mint is safe and secure. Mint never knows the user’s personal identity, provides bank level data security and industry-leading privacy protection.

“I created Mint because I was frustrated by using existing personal financial software. These products seemed entirely too time-intensive to be practical for those of us accustomed to the immediacy of the Web,” said Aaron Patzer, founder and CEO, Mint Software, Inc. “While these ‘solutions’ make you do the work, Mint works for you. It compiles financial information from multiple accounts and gives users a comprehensive view of their money; from the big picture to the smallest details. And only Mint delivers ‘unique to you’ savings offers that allow users to make smart money decisions. It’s about being able to do more with your money.”

Mint.com has been in private beta testing for the past few months, and is generating highly enthusiastic responses from early users. Mint’s management and engineering team is comprised of experts in Web technology, financial systems and security.

Mint’s product and market potential have attracted investment from both the venture and angel communities including:

  • First Round Capital
  • Jeff Clavier, SoftTechVC
  • Ron Conway, founder, Silicon Valley Angel Investors
  • Sy Fahimi, CEO, Adteractive
  • Mark Goines, former Senior Vice President, Intuit
  • Geoff Ralston, former Chief Product Officer, Yahoo

“This is a great product! You have already helped me save money,” said Steve Dogiakos, a Mint private beta user. “I switched from my local bank in Chicago to ING interest bearing checking and I’m saving HUNDREDS of dollars in ATM fees.”

About Mint http://www.mint.com

Founded in March 2006, Mint.com is the fresh, easy and intelligent way for people to manage their money online. And it’s free.

Registration is anonymous and requires five minutes or less. Patent-pending Mint technology does all the rest, giving users a unified view of all their financial transactions in a single, easy to understand interface. Mint provides detailed visibility into personal spending and saving; proactively alerting users about upcoming bills, low balances or unusual transactions; and offering personalized suggestions for real savings. The service is accessible via the Web or cell phone. And it’s safe and secure; Mint never knows your personal identity and delivers bank level data security and industry-leading privacy protection.

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