One investment startup, and one startup that we’ll call a personal finance venture, have made the Top 25 “hush-hush”-New York-startups-to-know list from Silicon Alley Insider, an influential monitor of new tech companies.
Betterment, which made the list at No. 15, is described as “a cheap, simple way to invest your savings for people who want to keep it simple and avoid exorbitant management fees.” The venture offers two investment vehicles: a bundle of stocks or a bundle of Treasury bonds. The company charges 0.9% annually.
At No. 17 was MileWise, and we’re stretching to call this a personal finance play. The short of it is that “MileWise — still in private beta — helps consumers find the most appealing and lucrative ways to cash in [their] frequent flyer miles and, eventually, other types of reward programs.”
Interestingly, most of the other startups on the list were essentially Groupon knockoffs. Perhaps this marks something of an end to the bull rush of PF startups. With Mint establishing the high end of exit valuation, perhaps some startup-wanna-bes have decided to look elsewhere — such as to the Groupon model.