Bling launches a savings product and partners with Evergreen

The newly-launched SavingsTrees product by Bling aims to support families in Germany by allowing them to invest sustainably starting from 1 EUR per month. Before this product launch, Bling focused on helping families manage their finances and teach their children about the importance of money management via an educational app and prepaid card. 

Bling believes that parents in Germany are put off from investing due to the high costs, complexity, and lack of understanding associated with traditional investment products. The company has designed SavingsTrees with user-friendliness and simplicity in mind, which is why it relies on playful visualizations and expert explanations to simplify the investment experience. 

For fund management, Bling chose to partner with a wealthtech named Evergreen citing lower costs when compared to the industry average. Via this partnership, funds invested in SavingsTrees are diversified globally and allocated to sustainable investments with a minimum Article 8-Fund SFDR classification. Focus is made on impact investments and their positive effects on the environment and society.

Bling’s founding and successful seed round

In December 2022, eu-startups.com reported that Bling, a company on a mission to improve access to financial education for families, had raised EUR 3.5 million in a seed round just 6 months after launch. The seed round included financing from Peak, La Famiglia, angels such as Lea-Sophie Cramer, Verena Pausder, Felix Haas (co-founder IDnow), Jakob Schreyer (co-founder Orderbird), Angel Invest and Prediction Capital.

Based in Berlin, the young company aimed to succeed in a multibillion-euro market, as the family segment has the highest purchasing power of any demographic. According to the same source, in retail banking, over 25% of European customers are parents with young children.

TechCrunch offered some more details about Bling and the way it operates. Specifically, Bling allows parents to sign up without a KYC process because it only operates in a first sub-EUR 150 amount. Parents create a family account, receive a card and set up their child’s account. Children learn via modules, set up savings pots, can earn money via errands and chores, and customize their cards. Shortly after the seed round, Bling claimed it had a user base of more than 10,000 children using a Bling Card as their first personal payment experience. 

With the new funding, Bling pledged to accelerate its growth and expand its offerings quickly. Half a year after obtaining the funds, the company launched the new SavingsTrees product.