With investors clamoring for more, Blooom raises $9.15 million

One of the area’s top startups, finance tech firm Blooom has landed a significant round of financing to accelerate its online tool to boost users’ retirement savings.

The firm announced Monday that it raised $9.15 million in an oversubscribed Series B round that features some behemoths in finance tech investing.

The round was co-led by existing Blooom investors QED, based in Alexandria, Virginia, and San Francisco-based Commerce Ventures. It also snagged investments from Allianz Life Ventures and Nationwide Ventures, as well as TTV Capital, the KCRise Fund, Industry Ventures and UMB. The Series B brings Blooom’s total raised to about $13.15 million.

Blooom CEO Chris Costello said that he was thrilled to have garnered not only significant interest but also a strong roster of investors.

“We are grateful to have had the opportunity to handpick some of the nation’s smartest fintech investors, who will help us in Blooom’s mission to help a large segment of underserved Americans manage their retirement savings,” Costello said in a release. “This Series B will allow us to reach hundreds of thousands of hard-working people across this country who have never received help with what may end up being their single most important financial asset: their 401k or 403b.”

The Leawood-based company is addressing a massive problem in the United States — namely helping with people’s confusion over saving for retirement. Millions of Americans don’t know what’s in their 401(k) plan or have any strategy in their investments, which is where Blooom arrives to help.

The financial tech firm helps users grow their 401(k)s using a proprietary online tool that analyzes their 401(k) and shows its health through a flower in various growth stages. It then offers ongoing professional advice on how to allocate funds.

Blooom also now has more than $500 million in assets under management, which the company said makes it one of the fastest independent robo-advisors ever to reach the half-billion-dollar mark. The firm surpassed the $300 million in AUM in June.

To help meet demand, Blooom plans to hire seven new employees in coming weeks. Now with 30 employees, Blooom is looking for tech and design talent.

Costello added that Blooom is proud to be a Midwestern grown firm in Kansas City.

“We aim to show the nation how a Kansas City company — with a team not focused on a ‘quick exit’, but rather a laser focus on doing right by clients and building an enduring financial services brand — can begin to move the needle on the retirement savings epidemic in this country,” he said.

Founded in 2013, Blooom was recognized as one Startland’s Top Startups to Watch in 2017.