Bright Funds has announced the successful closure of its Series Seed funding round. The financing was led by Aspiration Growth and featured participation from investors including 10K Investments, Bloomberg BETA, Mission & Market, and Wellspring Growth Partners. Individual investors Godfrey Sullivan and Frank Yeary were also involved.
Bright Funds CEO and co-founder Ty Walrod said that the funding would help the company “move enterprises large and small beyond the largely transactional employee giving programs in the marketplace today.” Bright Funds has developed technology, the Bright Funds Enterprise platform, that seamlessly integrates into payroll and human resource information systems (HRIS), making it easier to launch and manage charitable giving programs. From vetting potential charities and issuing payments to managing employee contributions and tracking volunteer time, the platform is designed to provide, in Walrod’s words, “a much more rewarding experience for employer and employee alike.”
The funding takes the total equity capital for Bright Funds to more than $3 million.
From left: Bright Funds co-founders Rutul Dave, chief of products and marketing, and CEO Ty Walrod demonstrated their charitable giving platform at FinovateSpring 2013 in San Francisco.
Bright Funds serves more than 30,000 charitable givers at more than 25 different companies and organizations. Charitable givers on the platform are provided a portfolio that allows them to concentrate all of their donations within a single theme, such as education or the environment, or to divide the contribution over multiple themes (70% Global Health; 30% Anti-Poverty). More than 1.5 million pre-screened nonprofits are represented on the platform. Donations through the platform are 100% tax deductible, and there is no charge to open an account with Bright Funds.
Bright Funds has been in the news recently with its commitment to help facilitate charitable donations to Nepal in the wake of the spring 2015 earthquakes that took the lives of thousands. The company was featured in a Forbes.com column on the relationship between technology and community, and profiled in a San Francisco Business Times article on how Bright Funds “mines tech companies and their employees for philanthropic dollars.”
Bright Funds made its Finovate debut at FinovateSpring 2013. The company was founded in February 2012 and is headquartered in San Francisco, California.