SALT LAKE CITY, Aug. 12, 2021 /PRNewswire/ — Today, Mercato Partners’ growth equity fund, Traverse, announced its investment in Chicago-based Klover, which is democratizing access to modern financial services by leveraging consumers’ permissioned data. Klover raised $60 million in new funding; Mercato Partners Traverse Fund led the Series A with participation from new and existing investors including Lightbank, Core Innovation Capital, and Starting Line. With this financing, Klover will expand the sales, marketing, engineering, and product teams aggressively, grow their 1.5 million user base, and broaden the services and value to their consumers.

Klover’s mission is to give consumers access to modern financial services by leveraging one of their most valuable assets: their data. Rather than being built on consumer fees like many financial institutions, Klover’s business model revolves around leveraging data and insights with trusted partners such as Wayfair, DoorDash, and GoodRx.

“Digital native consumers lead the way in understanding the value of their consumer data,” said Joe Kaiser, director at Mercato Partners Traverse Fund. “At the same time, too many consumers are locked out of affordable financial solutions. Klover breaks the old model by providing access to low or no-cost, app-based financial services powered by content-driven, anonymized, consumer data activation. By paying consumers for what is rightfully theirs and by scrupulously protecting individual privacy, Klover returns power to the consumers while offering innovative solutions to an underserved market.”

More than 68 percent of Americans need to exceed their checking account balance at least once a year due to unexpected expenses like car repairs or medical bills. When that happens, many Americans experience a double whammy as they also incur either an overdraft fee of $35 (on average) from their bank or high interest and fees from credit card companies and payday lenders. Klover’s unique approach has saved consumers millions of dollars in unnecessary fees during the past eighteen months, helping them regain their financial health.

“When searching for a partner to increase our tremendous trajectory, Mercato’s Traverse Fund has demonstrated an exemplary record of working in concert with hyper-growth companies to accelerate faster,” said Brian Mandelbaum, CEO, and co-founder of Klover. “We are excited to have Joe join our board and to partner with a team that has a great deal of experience working with high-growth companies like ours.  We plan on trailblazing a new category, changing the marketplace and we look forward to the collaboration with Mercato.”

About Klover

Klover’s mission is to give access to modern financial services to consumers by leveraging their most valuable asset: their data. Using Klover’s platform, millions of consumers can access their earned wages in seconds with no interest, no credit check, and no hidden fees. Unlike many financial institutions that rely heavily on consumer fees, Klover’s business model revolves around leveraging consumer-permissioned data and insights in concert with trusted partners. Klover was founded in 2019 and is based in Chicago. For more information, visit www.joinklover.com

About Traverse

Traverse is the growth fund of Mercato Partners, a multi-strategy investment firm that specializes in overlooked and underserved markets. Traverse leverages the breadth of its team’s investing and entrepreneurial experience in these targeted geographies to provide both capital and operational guidance for rapidly scaling companies in the technology and branded consumer segments. For over a decade, Traverse has found, funded, and collaborated with high-growth companies to help them achieve transformative growth and long-term value for our investors. For more information, please visit https://traverse.mercatopartners.com.