A company that bills itself as a negotiating service between consumers and banks and credit card companies has raised $12 million in Series A funding to fix the problem of paying bills, a process that the company says is “fundamentally broken” in the United States.
The company, called Cushion, “reimagines the bill payment experience as a single place to manage, pay, and finance bills, allowing customers to track bills, avoid late fees and overdrafts, and borrow money when needed, all while paying just one biller.”
Cushion is going to use the funds to expand the size of its team and grow its operation to work with more banks and financial services companies. The company says on its website that it works with 15,000 banks and credit unions, and that it has helped consumers receive more than $10 million in refunds in the past year.
“Two-thirds of consumer bills – totaling almost five times e-commerce spend in the United States – are paid manually and one at a time,” said Chris Calder, Principal at Rose Park Advisors, one of the investors in the Series A funding. “We are thrilled to partner with the Cushion team to connect consumers and billers in a new and innovative way and give millions of individuals newfound confidence in their financial lives.”
The company says its technology can automatically find recurring bills for consumers and create a dashboard they can access to make sure bills are paid on time. Helping consumers to pay their bills on time will allow them to cut down on the fees they are assessed for missing payments, making payments late, or overdrafting their accounts.
“Over the past decade, we’ve seen e-commerce get optimized to death,” said Paul Kesserwani, founder and CEO of Cushion, in a blog post
