Moven CEO Brett King Talks Funding, International Expansion
West Coast VCs don’t get banking, 
Moven CEO Brett King said, and that’s a problem for banking startups in the US.
King, one of the banking industry’s most prominent spokesmen, told Bank Innovation about his startup’s recent Series A funding, how the company connected with its investors, and plans for expanding beyond the US.
Moven has been expanding quickly, King said. The userbase stands at around 10,000, but with a waiting list of “about 200,000 to 300,000.” (When Moven left beta in March 2013, TechCrunch reported that it had 5,000 registered users and 100,000 on the waiting list.) This is strikingly reminiscent of Simple, famous for its long waiting list and recently revealed to have a surprisingly low active user count.
King noted that the goal isn’t just to acquire a large number of users, but rather active users who will consistently use the app. King said the top third of users open the app three to five times a day.
The company has hired more employees and interns recently, and will be expanding the team to about “a dozen to low 20’s” within a few months.
‘West Coast VCs Don’t Understand Banking’
Last week, Moven announced that it raised $8 million in funding, which was led by SBT Venture Capital, whose primary investor is Sberbank, the largest bank in Russia. When asked about the decision to pick SBT Venture Capital over other suitors, King had an interesting response.
“SBT is connected to the largest bank in Russia, so it doesn’t take a genius to figure out it would be massive for revenue and distribution and a huge partnership with their brand. For us, with our focus on a distributed approach, the West Coast VC’s are not particularly well-placed to work with. There are a lot of rules and regulations [in banking.] The West Coast VC’s don’t understand banking dynamics and they’re too focused on the United States. It’s hard to find venture capitalists on the West Coast that understand all that goes into fintech. There are some, though — there’s New York Angels in New York, Anthemis Group in London, and Route 66 Ventures in the US [all are investors in Moven] that understand our goals.”
In terms of international expansion, King did say that Moven has some “major partnerships in international markets” in the works, but none he was ready to announce (in the U.S., Moven works with CBW Bank in Kansas City and processes payments through FIS). It appears that the first international destinations may be New Zealand and Canada, since Moven is “quite advanced” there.
King said Moven is looking for markets where “there’s high contactless and smartphone penetration. We’re also looking at areas where the consumers are looking for financial awareness and tend to push back against the traditional [establishments].”
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