Debt Management Start-Up Tally to Expand Beyond Credit Card Service in 2019
*By Tanaya Macheel*
Tally is on track to expand its product offering in 2019, Cheddar has learned.
The automated debt management start-up, which launched in October 2017 and [raised $25 million](https://cheddar.com/videos/credit-card-payoff-app-tally-raises-25-million) in Series B funding in July, is now managing about $250 million in credit card debt and has processed more than $100 million in payments, CEO and founder Jason Brown told Cheddar Monday.
“With 2019 ahead of us, we’re laying the foundation for being able to automate beyond credit card debt,” Brown said, potentially referring to savings and investing, or other kinds of debt like student and auto loans.
With its existing app, the San Francisco-based company aims to remove the pain of managing credit card payments by letting users link their credit cards ー and paying off those credit cards on behalf of their users.
Once users qualify, Tally offers a low-rate line of credit that users pay monthly; that payment covers the minimums on each linked credit card.
Since July, Tally has tripled its headcount, launched its app for Android devices, and released a “robo-advisor for debt” that considers users’ current spending, income, debt to date, and helps them structure a monthly payment plan in order to be debt-free by the date they've chosen.
“Most people think about investing, setting a date for when you’ll retire,” Brown said. “Only about 14 percent of Americans actively buy stocks whereas 44 percent of Americans have credit card debt. We built a product that allows you to set a goal for when you’re going to be debt free.”
Tally currently has about 75 employees, half of whom are engineering and product personnel. The company plans to have 100 employees by the first quarter of 2019.
It also plans to expand its current prime offering. Tally is only available to creditworthy users (those with at least a 660 credit score).
With fintech, traditional financial institutions are doing more financial work for consumers in an “invisible and ambient” way as their brands lose customer interaction to start-ups like Tally, which are employing artificial intelligence to optimize each financial task and separating the benefits of financial responsibilities from the burden.
“Those fintechs will be effectively doing business on the customer’s behalf with the broader financial industry,” Brown said.
“Most banks are organized by product categories, things that you kind of pick off the shelf as a customer. We think about things in terms of jobs you need done. It’s more around goals and objectives as a customer — and the service might use multiple products on your behalf without you even knowing what products are being utilized to get you to your goal.”
Google announced it will be updating its privacy restrictions that will limit tracking throughout apps on android devices. The update is similar to Apple's previous update, which ended up causing companies like Meta to lose billions of dollars on the market. Cheddar News was joined by David Trainer, CEO of New Constructs, to discuss the implications of the new privacy updates.
Global semiconductor sales topped $500 billion dollars for the first time in history in 2021. Demand for microchips has been at an all-time high amid a global shortage, but questions still remain about the future of semiconductor production. Cheddar News was joined by Tristan Gerra, Senior Research Analyst at Baird, to answer some of these questions and more.
Compass Inc. reported its Q4 earnings on Wednesday, noting a 31 percent surge in quarterly revenue year over year. The real estate brokerage platform allows agents to promote and market their properties online and saw a 90 percent agent retention rate as well. Compass CEO Robert Reffkin joined Cheddar News to discuss the company's earnings, what ongoing inflation means for the housing market and how they help agents directly. "Let me start by saying my mom is actually a real estate agent, has been the majority of my life. She's a real estate agent today at Compass, and so I built Compass with her in mind," Reffkin said. The goal for an agent is to grow their business and have a better quality of life, more income to support their family, more time to be with their family, and it's not just software. It's a platform of software and services."
While many are excited to watch the final two NFL teams square-off and see which one ultimately takes home the trophy, some, on the other hand, are there for another mian attraction -- the commercials. Companies during this year's game are looking towards the future From electric vehicles, to robots, and crypto-currency, several first-time advertisers are expected to join long-time advertisers like Pepsi, Budweiser and Doritos during the NFL's biggest game. Tom Morton, Global Chief Strategy Officer at R/GA, joined Cheddar News' Big Game Special to discuss.
Nissan is revving up its commitment to electric vehicles. the Japanese automaker announcing plans to invest $500 million to transform its assembly plant in Mississippi to build two all-new EV models starting in 2025. It's all part of Nissan's goal to have 23 electrified models for the Nissan and Infiniti brands globally by 2030. Ashwani Gupta, Nissan's COO, joined Cheddar's Opening Bell to discuss this announcement and the company's EV goals moving forward.
Cepton made its debut on the Nasdaq under the ticker symbol ‘CPTN’ on Thursday. Jun Pei, the co-founder and CEO, joined Cheddar News to discuss going public and its lidar-based solutions for improving safety in autonomous features in cars. "It's really just a huge benefit in addition to radar and camera, and becomes an entire sensor suite that will bring cars to a higher level, both for safety and autonomy."
