We're thrilled to share our investment in Bridge Money Inc., a first-of-its-kind fintech company that has created a unique money earning app. Within the application, Bridge has built a marketplace of earning options that give users the liberty to choose what they opt in for. It's been an exciting opportunity for Plug and Play to participate in Bridge’s $5.8m seed round alongside TMV, Founder Collective, Kapor Capital, and others.

Plug and Play took a deep-dive into the credit market, especially as it pertains to unbanked and underbanked low-income consumers. Our ventures team assessed the market into three primary groups:

• Legacy consumer banks
• New startup neobanks
• And, financial products like Buy Now Pay Later, early wage access, and other solutions

Ultimately, we found that the prime borrower has access to more financial products than ever before but the same narrative isn't always true for subprime borrowers. Even more importantly, this type of consumer who is oftentimes more likely to be lower income versus their prime counterparts is often credit resistant as well.

Bridge is one of the few apps that actually pay you

The company enables low-income consumers to earn supplemental income. Members earn money by linking an existing debit card or bank account in the Bridge app and sharing fully consented and anonymized data with third-party businesses through various in-app money-making activities, such as cashback, surveys, ad viewing, referrals, and raffles, among others. The most active Bridge members earn over $200 a month using the app, and earnings can be deposited directly into members’ bank accounts.

The team behind Bridge

Bridge Money Inc. is led by CEO Lalit Janak and CMO David Wright. Lalit and David are the ideal team to build this kind of company. Janak acquired his financial acumen at Citigroup and Wright was responsible for more than $100m in digital ad spend while delivering ad tech products at Exponential. David and Lalit’s complementary skill sets and relationships will be key to their growth as they build a solution that benefits both consumers and brands. It was an easy decision to back this amazing team and support them on their mission to reimagine the future of financial inclusion.