Bling, educational super app for families, receives $12 million investment to support families with everyday stress

• Europe's first super app for families receives fresh capital to help families with everyday stress and improve the financial and media literacy of the next generation

• Series A financing is led by Owl Ventures, the world's largest EdTech VC investor from Silicon Valley; early-stage investor in Commerzbank Group Neosfer is a co-investor

• Less than two years after market launch, Bling has a six-digit number of income-relevant family members on the platform

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‍Berlin, June 27, 2024 — Bling, Europe's first super app for families, has completed a Series A financing round worth a total of twelve million USD. With the growth capital, Berlin-based FamilyTech will further expand its pioneering role with family-friendly digital solutions in the areas of payment, investment and mobile communications. The financing round is led by Owl Ventures, the world's largest VC fund focused on EdTech. Based in Silicon Valley, Owl Ventures manages over $2 billion in assets and has invested in some of the most successful EdTech companies, including MasterClass. In addition to existing investors PEAK and Angel Invest, the Frankfurt venture arm of the Commerzbank Group Neosfer is also participating in Bling as a co-investor.

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“Almost 70% of parents in Germany are overwhelmed in everyday life and risk burnout. With our app, we relieve families in the long term: from easy payments and investments, to a task and shopping planner, to family-friendly mobile communications,” says Nils Feigenwinter, co-founder and CEO of Bling. “In less than two years, 150,000 family members have decided to simplify their everyday lives with family-friendly solutions from Bling. For many, Bling is already the ultimate super app for coordination within the family.”

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Bling always pursues the mission of improving the financial and media literacy of children and families, relying on simple visualizations and educational information in the app. Launched in summer 2022 with a pocket money card and the associated app, Bling quickly developed into a holistic platform for families. Through partnerships with industry giants such as Société Générale and Evergreen, Bling's B2B2C partners gain unique access to the family target group. Most recently, in February 2024, Bling launched the family-friendly mobile service “Bling Mobile” in collaboration with Europe's largest telecommunications company, Deutsche Telekom. This complements the range of services for modern families, including pocket money management, easy investments for parents, and household organization.

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“With an excellent product, an innovative B2B2C platform and strong customer growth, Bling's education-oriented approach is very well received by families. Bling is well on its way to becoming one of the most trusted brands for families in Europe,” said Jenny Wang, Partner and Head of Europe at Owl Ventures. “We are looking forward to a long-term partnership with Bling and its Education Board to improve families' financial and media literacy.

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Neosfer also sees great potential in bling. Marlon Müller, responsible investor at Neosfer, comments: “Bling is showing impressive development and offers a unique platform that is perfectly tailored to the needs of modern families. The Bling team impresses with their high innovative strength and deep understanding of their target group. In addition, we see great synergy potential between Bling and Commerzbank, particularly with regard to digital financial services for 12 million families in Germany. ”

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Leon Stephan, co-founder and CTO of Bling, comments on the rapid growth: “Bling is built as a platform, which significantly simplifies and accelerates product development. In less than two years, we have replaced many of the most popular apps for payment, investment, mobile communications, to-dos and purchasing management with Bling. With this round of financing and our flexible platform, we can offer tens of thousands of Bling families additional educational features even faster.”

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In addition to well-known institutional investors (Owl Ventures, LaFamiglia (now part of General Catalyst), PEAK, Neosfer) and renowned business angels (Verena Pausder, Lea-Sophie Cramer, André Schürrle), Bling has now won over another major US investor. In total, the family super app has raised over 15 million USD in capital so far. The investment from Owl Ventures will further improve and complement Blling's offering. This includes expanding the B2B2C platform. Bling is already cooperating with numerous B2B2C partners such as Société Générale, Deutsche Telekom and Evergreen and gives its partners unique access to the family target group.

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‍About Bling

‍Bling was founded in Berlin in 2021. The super app for families offers family-friendly digital solutions in the areas of payment, investment and mobile communications. Bling's mission is to improve families' financial and media literacy and therefore relies on simple visualizations and educational information in the app and on social media. Numerous renowned investors such as LaFamiglia (now part of General Catalyst), PEAK, Owl Ventures, Verena Pausder, Lea Sophie Cramer and André Schürrle are involved in Bling.

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For more information, see www.bling.de‍‍

‍Photos and the Bling logo can be found here

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‍For press inquiries: [email protected]/Artem Zhuravlev/+49-1515-6343098

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