Northstar Raises $24.4M to Expand Financial Wellness Benefit Platform

Financial wellness benefit provider Northstar has raised $24.4 million and said the additional capital will enable it to expand its products and its global reach.

Offered by employers as a benefit to their employees, Northstar employs FinTech tools and in-house financial advisors to help employees make financial decisions and get the most out of their total compensation, the company said in a Thursday (Oct. 13) press release.

Northstar now offers these benefits in 18 countries; with the new funding, the company plans to expand to at least 30 countries by the end of 2023, according to the release.

“Financial wellbeing is a universal challenge, and today we face a dizzying array of complex decisions and tradeoffs, from understanding debt paydown strategies to making retirement contributions,” Northstar CEO and Co-Founder Will Peng said in the release. “By working with employers, we are able to solve a problem for both the employee and the employer, as work is the decision point for so many financial and life choices.”

Citing research published by PYMNTS, Northstar said in the release that many people are living paycheck to paycheck at this time of record-high inflation and job market volatility.

For example, 42% of Americans who make more than $100,000 a year live paycheck to paycheck, as do 70% of millennials, according to “New Reality Check: The Paycheck-to-Paycheck Report,” a PYMNTS and LendingClub collaboration.

To provide financial guidance at scale through employers, Northstar offers to match each employee with a personal advisor with whom they can work on an ongoing basis, provides a proprietary suite of personal finance and total compensation tools, and delivers advice covering financial, benefits, equity and salary, the release stated.

GGV Capital led the funding and was joined by new investors PayPal Ventures, Thomson Reuters Ventures and Canvas Ventures, according to the release. Existing investors M13, Workday Ventures, Parade Ventures, Foundation Capital, Designer Fund and RRE also participated.

“We at GGV share Northstar’s vision that financial wellness should be universal for all employees,” Hans Tung, GGV Capital managing director and Northstar board member, said in the release. “It is the next highly sought-after employee benefit after mental health.”