Pasadena Company Closes $1.5 Million Seed Round Funding Deal

Goalswell, Inc., a Pasadena-based company that seeks to help high school and college students develop healthy financial habits, has closed $1.5 million in seed round funding led by Andrew Nikou, founder and CEO of private equity firm OpenGate Capital, based in Los Angeles and Paris.

Nikou will be joining the Goalswell board as a result of the seed round.

A wholly owned subsidiary of MobLab Inc., Goalswell, founded in March this year, leverages the latest insights from behavioral science and cognitive psychology research to help students practice personal finance management and social accountability.

Led by Dr. Amanda Lash, the team’s senior cognitive psychologist, the company blends social goal setting with interactive and gamified learning of financial literacy to drive learning by doing. The company is set to launch a financial goal-setting app on iPhone and Android devices later this summer.

“Developing healthy financial habits at an early age has never been more crucial,” Nikou said in a statement. “Goalswell goes beyond teaching students financial literacy and actually helps them discover their own habits and behaviors will lead them to financial success. Most importantly, the gamification, competition and community aspects of Goalswell’s not only differentiate it from other services, but also ensure that the lessons it teaches really resonate with its target demographic at this early age.”

Citing research, Goalswell said financial literacy alone does not drive long-term behavior changes. At a time when close to 70 percent of Americans do not have enough to retire and student debt exceeds $1.7 trillion, financial empowerment is more important than ever, the statement said.

“We are honored to have Andrew, who shares our passion and belief in instilling healthy financial behavior at an early age, join Goalswell as an investor,” Walter Yuan, MobLab CEO, said. “In addition to the capital infusion which will help us bring this innovative platform to market, he brings us financial acumen, an unparalleled network of potential resources, and practical business advice that I have no doubt will be immediately accretive to the company. I know I speak for the entire company when I say how excited we are for this next phase of our growth.”

Goalswell said Dan Goldstein, a renowned computer scientist and cognitive psychologist from Microsoft Research, will also join the Goalswell board.

For more information about Goalswell Inc., visit www.goalswell.com.