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The 411: Investment Opportunity - A financial platform that enables employees to save for their 401(k) when shopping locally and online.
Found on: https://www.seedinvest.com/evoshare/seed
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https://www.evoshare.com/
We believe, due to the rise in cost of living and deeply rooted spending behaviors, it has become harder for individuals to set more money aside for retirement. EvoShare has found a way to turn employees’ spending into an entirely new source of money for the retirement industry.
The corporate retirement industry is not where it should be. 70% of employees have below average retirement savings. About half of employers have indicated employee participation and contributions to their sponsored retirement plan are the #1 issue to focus on.
EvoShare sees three reasons for this situation:
Firstly, employees only have one source of money for their sponsored retirement plan; their paycheck. Secondly, they simply cannot afford to set aside any or more of their paycheck earnings for their sponsored retirement plan. And thirdly, they have deeply rooted spending behaviors that cannot be easily changed and inhibit them from contributing towards their retirement.
The financial industry has teamed up with employers to address this issue. They've used valid methods such as financial education, but spending habits are not easy to change. One can give employees the information they need on their finances and the importance of saving for retirement, but ultimately the employee needs to take action. This is where the industry has fallen short and EvoShare can help.
EvoShare is responding to the lack of employee retirement contributions in a nontraditional way. Instead of telling employees they should spend less and save more, we rely on their spending habits to grow their retirement savings. Consumer spending will continue to grow and EvoShare wants to leverage this to create the next breakthrough in the retirement industry.
The corporate retirement plan industry serves 85.9 million employees nationwide that are 401k plan participants. 401(k) accounts, also known as sponsored retirement plans, represent 80% of the retirement market. EvoShare is ready to fill a significant need in this large market.
Our mission is to make saving for retirement a daily habit and give everyone, regardless of income levels, a sustainable source of retirement dollars.
Team Story
Co-founders and lifelong friends, Eugeny Prudchyenko and Dan Tseytlonok, first developed a customer loyalty platform for merchants that would give customers money back as a donation to charitable causes.
One day while on his way to Lake Tahoe, Eugeny dove past a Prudential Billboard that said, "the best donation is a donation to your retirement." Eugeny was struck by this statement and instantly changed his travel plans to meet Dan at the office. It didn't take long for Eugeny and Dan to realize that EvoShare's business model must be changed to address America's retirement crisis.
In a matter of months, Eugeny and Dan revamped the EvoShare platform and created an entirely new source of money for American workers' retirement; their spending.
Product & Service
EvoShare works with existing affiliate networks, card-linked offers, and loyalty programs*, and recaptures up to 30% of employees’ purchases. We then turn rewards into automatic 401(k) and 403(b) contributions through our patent-pending process.
Through established integrations, EvoShare has built a network of ~8,300 local business nationwide and 1,500+ online merchants** like eBay, Groupon, and many more that give cash-back towards employees' retirement accounts. In this way, EvoShare is meeting employees in their everyday spending patterns and giving them an entirely new source of money for their 401(k) or 403(b).
The EvoShare experience begins with employers offering our solution to their employees as a perk.
Employees create their EvoShare account and link any of their debit or credit cards, and begin shopping as usual at any of our partnered merchants. Through our partner Empyr, we have completed data security due diligence with American Express, and MasterCard, so these cards can be linked to our platform.
Once a quarter, EvoShare partners with the employer's payroll department to follow our patent-pending, 3-step process and convert cash-back earnings into additional retirement contributions:
1) EvoShare provides the employer's payroll department with the cash-back dollar amounts each employee has earned.
2) EvoShare sends each employee their cash-back earnings via check or direct deposit.
3) Payroll makes a one-time additional deduction from each employee's upcoming paycheck, in the dollar amount of their cash-back earnings. This additional deduction goes into the employees' sponsored retirement plan.***
This patent-pending process is vetted by attorneys and retirement industry players such as recordkeepers, payroll providers, third-party administrators, and retirement plan consultants.
*Loyalty Programs are not yet currently available.
**EvoShare partners with Empyr, an O2O integration company, for its local business rewards network. As of April 1st, per Empyr’s estimates, there are 8,300 local stores that offer cash back rewards within Empyr’s network. The Company also partners with ShareASale, Rakuten, and FlexOffers for its online rewards network, which currently contains ~1,500 online stores. Merchant counts will always vary depending on these integration partners. These statements represent management’s estimates based on data provided by its integration partners and are meant for illustrative purposes. They do not represent guarantees of future results, levels of activity, performance, or achievements.
***As of April 1, 2018, EvoShare has not yet issued any cash-back earnings to its customers' 401(k) plans, but it plans to start doing so.
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