Left to right: Emiliano Villarreal (Chuck Norris of Product) and CEO Tony Aguilar, confound, demonstrated Student Loan Genius at FinovateSpring 2016.

Employees of PR analytics innovator TrendKite will soon have a much easier time paying off their student loans and saving for retirement. The Austin-based company will deploy technology from Student Loan Genius that will enable them to provide loan-debt repayment assistance to both TrendKite employees as well as members of their immediate families.

Student Loan Genius founder and CEO Tony Aguilar says that educating companies on this issue is a big part of the startup’s early success: Student Loan Genius offers free surveys and showcases the real stories of employees and their challenges to repay student-loan debt to show the impact. “In 2013 when we launched, most company leaders we talked to had no clue that the student-loan problem was actually affecting their businesses,” Aguilar said.

Jennifer Cantu, TrendKite’s VP of people, echoed this point, saying, “Issues that concern [employees], like student loans, are issues we should try to help with. When we saw the data, we knew student-loan benefits were a requirement, not an option.”

Founded in 2013 and headquartered in Austin, Texas, Student Loan Genius demonstrated its platform at FinovateSpring 2016. The company has raised $3.1 million in funding, courtesy of a seed investment led by Gibraltar Ventures and featuring participation by Capital Factory, Fenway Summer Ventures, Kapor Capital, VilCap Investments, and Village Capital. This spring, Prudential Retirement announced that it would provide Student Loan Genius to its clients.