Why We Invested in Charlie
Very excited to announce our investment in Charlie! Financial services for retirees.
At Better Tomorrow Ventures, we feel as though the vast majority of founders, including in fintech, tend to build products for people who look like themselves.
That's why we have so many repetitive neobanks, social investing apps, etc. Furthermore, we have seen an explosion of neobanks built for specific audiences (e.g., all the x for y) that fail to actually differentiate their products, so their ability to acquire users ultimately comes down to branding.
Meanwhile, you can probably count on one hand the number of fintech companies serving the needs of seniors, despite that being such a huge population. Not only is the population of retirees and soon-to-be-retirees huge, but this population has niche needs when it comes to their finances, meaning that there is an opportunity for providers to actually tailor their offering to meet this population’s needs.
For example, after spending a lifetime accumulating resources to help navigate life and save for retirement, these folks, rather abruptly, must shift their mentality to decumulating these resources at the point of retirement and try to figure out how to make their savings last for some uncertain amount of time.
Despite there being existing resources from banks, wealth managers, and alternative providers, these do not sufficiently solve the unique problems of retirees, and over 50% of the 73 million seniors in the US do not feel prepared financially for retirement.
That is why Charlie is building simple and transparent financial solutions for retirees to help them make the most of their limited resources. They are starting with features such as faster access to Social Security checks, 3% earnings on balances, and no monthly fees or minimums and over time will build a financial platform, including financial planning, credit, investment, and pension products.
The timing is right, as a huge wave of tech-confident retirees that are smartphone savvy are approaching retirement age and are ripe for being offered a better way to handle their finances.
With Charlie, we’re excited to be backing Kevin Nazemi, who we have known for many years. He’s a formidable operator, with experience founding Oscar Health and then Renew Health, and he's been passionate about this problem for a long time. When he came to us for advice on the problem, the market, the product approach, etc, we jumped at the chance to lead his seed round, alongside Expa, Ayokunle Omojola, and Gokul Rajaram.
Charlie recently launched their product, so if you have any friends or family members that are currently receiving social security, tell them to check out Charlie.com!
