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🦄 Unicorner Startup of the Week: Yotta
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✍️ Notes From The Editors
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Win lottery prizes on your savings
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Yotta is an FDIC-insured neobank that combines the near-instant gratification of entering the lottery with long-term financial planning to help Americans save more. In return for making deposits, Yotta offers customers a 0.2% Annual Percentage Yield on their savings as well as entry to weekly draws from which they can win up to $100 million.
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💰 Business Model
Customers link an existing bank account to use the Yotta mobile app. For every $25 deposited with Yotta, customers get a recurring ticket which automatically enters them into weekly prizes. By pooling together a portion of the interest from high-value banks who pay for the service, Yotta is able to offer a 100% feeless service with no minimum cash balance.
📈 Traction and Fundraising
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Set up over 130,000 accounts with a total of over $200 million in deposits
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Took part in Y Combinator S20 batch
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Raised $13.2 million in Series A led by Base10 Partners with participation from Y Combinator, Core Innovation Capital, and Slow Ventures
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Raised $3.3 million in seed funding from investors including TwentyTwo VC, Chapter One Ventures, and FundersClub
👫 Founder(s)
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Adam Moelis, CEO: Previously Product @ YipitData, Special Situations Group Analyst @ Goldman Sachs, Economics, Finance and Accounting BS @ Wharton
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Ben Doyle, CTO: Previously Co-Founder @ Entrypoint, Investment Associate @ Bridgewater Associates, CS @ UMich
🔮 Our Analysis
A staggering number of Americans (40%) don’t have $400 dollars for emergencies, yet the average household spends over $600 on the lottery each year. This combined with the meager 0.1% monthly APYs offered by some of the largest banks like Wells Fargo and Chase for savings accounts make it difficult for Americans to accrue meaningful personal savings. Yotta uses behavioral psychology to buck this trend, allowing customers to experience both the short-term gratification of buying a lottery ticket and the long-term benefit of greater financial security. Yotta was inspired by Premium Bonds, a Treasury-backed vehicle that has become the UK’s favorite savings product helping more than 21 million customers save over £100 billion ($137.9 billion); Yotta’s rapid growth suggests it may be able to capture a similar market share from a much larger American market. Exciting new features such as Pool Play, which allows users to join tickets with friends and split weekly winnings, and debit cards which give customers extra tickets when used for purchases, continue to make the act of saving money more exciting. However, so far Yotta has only operated in a world of low APYs. It will be interesting to see how it reacts to stop future interest rate increases from adversely affecting its customer base.
📚 Further Reading
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Made with 💜 by the Unicorner Team 🦄
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🎁 Bonus Content!
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