Capital One Acquires Budgeting App Level Money

Capital One has acquired San Francisco-based money management app, Level Money, the companies are announcing this morning. The app, which is focused on allowing consumers to keep track of their spendable cash and savings, had 700,000 users at the time of the acquisition, and has helped its customers manage over $12 billion in transactions. The startup will now continue on as a part of Capital One, but will remain a standalone application. The Level Money team of 11 will also stay together, including co-founder and CEO Jake Fuentes.

Terms of the deal were not disclosed.

The startup had raised $5 million in Series A funding led by Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers.

Level Money was founded in 2012, and released its application in fall 2013. The app connects to 2,500 U.S. banks, but doesn’t hold money itself – its purpose is to help users better control their money housed in their various accounts and track their spending. The app is specifically aimed at those in their twenties and early thirties (Millennials), who want to figure out things like how to pay back student loans or start saving. Users of the app can set savings goals, plus the app will offer suggestions of what you should do with extra cash left over at the end of the month – like whether you should put it towards an extra loan payment, for example, or if should you invest it.

The appeal of the app, available on both iOS and Android, is not only the insights it delivers, but also the presentation. In a simplified, easy-to-read interface, Level Money offers data visualizations that help you better picture your current cash management situation.

In a blog post announcing the deal, Level Money CEO Jake Fuentes says that joining Capital One will help the company continue to evolve and grow, “powered by the resources and deep expertise at Capital One.”  The company also cites Capital One’s technology-based, consumer-centric approach to banking, which aligns with Level Money’s own goals to create a “delightful experience” for dealing with your financial institution, he says.

“Banks should be walking alongside their customers, clearing a path so that their customers can feel empowered without worrying about money: empowered to repair a cracked phone screen, to go on that date night, to say yes to experiences we’ll remember for the rest of our lives,” writes Fuentes. “We believe clearing that path doesn’t have to involve sitting down with a financial advisor, and it often comes down to managing the small decisions we make every day.”

Capital One has snatched up a handful of money management startups including spending tracker Bundle in late 2012, BankOns, and more recently, it bought San Francisco-based design and user experience consultancy, Adaptive Path.

Asked how Capital One plans to monetize its new investment, it didn’t reply with a direct answer, only saying that Level Money is “one of many steps that Capital One is making to deliver a next-generation banking experience.”

Correction: updated number of supported banks after posting