Seattle-based teen banking app Copper is growing its headcount after raising $29 million Tuesday.
Copper co-founder and CEO Eddie Behringer said the company currently has just over 30 full-time employees and aims to roughly double that number a year from now. About 18 of those employees are based in Seattle, Behringer added.
"We're very focused on growing the product and engineering team right now," Behringer said. "With the new product offerings, we're looking to double the engineering headcount."
In addition to its full-time employees, Copper has almost 30 contractors who go into schools and teach financial education, spreading the word about Copper's product. Although the company has users in all 50 states, according to Behringer, the contractors focus their efforts in Florida, Texas and California because they have a dense number of schools with a large number of students. Behringer said the company will likely have between 45 and 50 contractors a year from now.
Copper has around 10,000 square feet of office space in Uptown on First Avenue West, Behringer said. He added that the company has enough space for the next year or so, and employees are going into the office about three days per week.
Copper, founded in 2019, provides a bank account for teens that users control through an app. The partner bank for the account is Memphis, Tennessee-based Evolve Bank & Trust. Copper also issues users a debit card and teaches financial literacy through the app. Users can track spending, send money to friends and set up a direct deposit. Parents, meanwhile, can monitor their children's spending and send them money. Copper says it has more than 800,000 users.
Behringer and fellow Copper co-founder Stefan Berglund previously co-founded the Seattle-based fundraising platform Snap! Raise with Cole Morgan, now Snap! Raise's CEO. Behringer said despite creating a great company, he was most attracted to the early building years while Morgan was happy to stay on with Snap! Raise, and Behringer and Berglund saw a unique opportunity in the teen banking app space.
Copper faces competition, however, from other well-funded startups. Companies like Greenlight and Step, both of which make bank accounts aimed at kids, have raised nine-figure funding rounds and scored celebrity backing. Despite the seemingly crowded field, Behringer said the market is so large that it isn't really an issue yet. He added that these teen banking startups collectively only have about 2% to 3% of the market right now.
As its users grow up, Copper aims to maintain its banking relationship with customers.
"You keep your first primary bank account for an average of 14 years," Behringer said. "That first inflection point is really when teens leave home. They go to college. They have financial needs that evolve as they get older. We know that we can't be all things, so we will partner with best-in-class providers."
