The Lasso app uses an express financial planning process to easily match consumers and advisors through a gamified experience.
New York, NY – April 22nd, 2021 – GoalBased Investors (GBI), the team behind the Lasso app that democratizes access to goal-based financial planning and advice, has raised $2.75 million in a seed funding round led by Silicon Valley venture firm True Ventures, with participation from The Venture Collective (TVC). The company is on a mission to create a better, easier financial planning experience that helps anyone, regardless of financial literacy, achieve their goals.
The Lasso apps will launch in Fall 2021. Download them in the Apple App Store or subscribe to the GBI newsletter at https://goalbasedinvestors.com/sign-up.
GBI was founded by a team with deep roots in financial services and technology. Their firsthand experience with people lacking in financial preparedness yet looking to reach financial goals for life’s big milestones informed the Lasso app. The company saw a need to help these individuals and families more clearly understand where they stand financially, quickly develop a plan for their money and easily find expert advice to help get their finances in order.
While there are a la carte solutions for some of these financial services, there is not yet a platform that offers all of these capabilities in one streamlined experience that makes money management easy for anyone, regardless of level of financial literacy. Lasso was created as an express platform to help individuals plan for their financial goals and easily match with the expert advice needed to successfully achieve them.
Unlike other apps that help individuals with financial planning, Lasso offers a streamlined, gamified interface that makes financial planning fun and interactive. Upon signing up, users can quickly dive right in and explore different ways to reach their goals through the platform’s intuitive, interactive graphic interface. In a matter of minutes, consumers walk away with a clearer financial picture, actionable next steps and experts at their fingertips who can help them reach their goals.
“Too often, you see products that require individuals to become more financially literate in order to use them,” said Chip Castille, founder of GBI and former managing director at BlackRock. “At GBI, we believe that FinTech shouldn’t expect individuals to do more. It should do more for individuals.”
There are two versions of the Lasso app – one for consumers and one for advisors – that work together to facilitate an easier, more effective interaction between the two parties. Logging into the consumer app (Lasso), a user is immediately prompted to start building a plan for their most important goals. With just a few clicks, they’re given a plan score to let them know how close or far they are from reaching their goal, and also ways to maximize their score. Then they can browse a community of credible financial advisors who can help them improve on and implement their plan.
Advisors receive consumers’ plans on the Lasso Advisor Portal. They can send back suggested enhancements in the form of an optimized portfolio. Consumers immediately see how the advisor’s proposal could improve their outcomes and can connect with an advisor of their choice to implement their plan.
“Lasso opens up a more effective dialogue between investors and advisors,” said Becca Long, GBI’s head of sales and client experience. Long formerly led development of fintech advisor-facing technologies at BlackRock. “It puts everyone on the same side of the table by giving them a common way to talk about planning that doesn’t require knowing anything about finance,” she added. “This ultimately leads to better outcomes for everyone.”
“This team is on a mission to strip away some of the intimidating jargon from financial planning that makes it daunting for people,” said Phil Black, co-founder of True Ventures. “Bridging communication between the average investing consumer and advisors who can help them is an incredible use of technology. We believe in Chip, his team and their honest mission to help people achieve their life goals.”
“We’re hugely excited to support GBI’s goal of lowering the barriers for people to get the advice they need in order to simply and successfully achieve their savings goals. Financial inclusion impacts individuals around the world, and the Lasso app will address this head on,” said Gina Kirch, co-founder of The Venture Collective.
For any media inquiries, please email pr@goalbasedinvestors.com.
About GoalBased Investors
GoalBased Investors (GBI) is the team behind the Lasso app that helps individuals quickly build meaningful financial plans for life’s important goals and easily match with an expert who can help make them successful. GBI’s mission is to create more access to financial planning and advice by facilitating more effective, efficient conversations around financial goals.
About True Ventures
Founded in 2005, True Ventures is a Silicon Valley-based venture capital firm that invests in early-stage technology startups. With more than $2.8 billion under management, True provides seed and Series A financing to entrepreneurs in today’s fastest growing markets. To learn more, visit http://www.trueventures.com.
About The Venture Collective
The Venture Collective (TVC) is a transformational, early-stage venture business that is on a mission to bridge the funding gap for early-stage founders. They are a support first, milestone driven investor that contributes capital, time, and networks to help positively impactful, fast-growing companies create long-lasting businesses.