PAY DAY, PAY OFF: Pillar, a New York City-based startup that aims to help people manage their student loan debt payments, has raised $5.5 million in a seed round led by Kleiner Perkins. Other investors include Rainfall Ventures, Great Oaks VC, Financial Venture Studio, Kairos, Red Dog Capital, and Day One Ventures, along with individuals Adam Nash, Noah Weiss, Zach Weinberg, Nat Turner, Misha Esipov, Patrick Kavanagh, and Nadia Asoyan.
Founded in 2018, the company offers an app that aggregates user’s student loan data. Based on a person’s loan, income and spending information, the app then recommends strategies for how one can most efficiently pay off his or her debt.
The company is still in private beta with testers who altogether had more than $50 million in student loan debt, TechCrunch reports. The funding will be used to double its staff from its current team of 10. There are “thousands” on the waitlist interested in trying the app, the company claims in a blog post.
