Money Dashboard, the UK personal finance app that helps you understand why you’re broke, has raised some additional capital of its own. It’s secured a further $3.7 million in funding (actually closed last November), meaning that the Scottish startup has raised $8.3 million in the last year.
Private equity fund, Calculus Capital, led the round, while Ariadne Capital, Par Equity, and The Scottish Investment Bank also participated.
Launched in 2010, Money Dashboard’s free app lets you monitor your online bank and credit card accounts and, in turn, keep tabs on your spending. It does this by automatically tagging items in your online statements, such as ‘grocery’ or ‘travel’, letting you get a better (and aggregated) view of expenditure and income by category, with the broader aim to help you budget more effectively.
Its USP is that, unlike each bank’s own mobile app, Money Dashboard provides a consolidated view of your spending across multiple bank accounts and credit cards, supported by a central and somewhat smart dashboard.
However, what I find more interesting is the way the company makes money. By having access to your spending habits, the app pushes various related financial products or offers, encouraging you to switch products in order to save money, and receiving a kick-back for doing so.
Additionally, Money Dashboard sells anonymous spending data and trends to market research companies.
You are the product, after all.
