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FeeX is a crowdsourcing financial intelligence company for people to share information in order to minimize financial fees.
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Uri Levine
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Waze co-founder Uri Levine has raised $3 million for crowdsourcing financial intelligence company FeeX Ltd. Blumberg Capital made the investment in FeeX’s first financing round. The company, which calls itself “The Robin Hood of fees” is already operating in Israel, and will launch in the US in early 2014.
Levine co-founded FeeX with Yoav Zurel, David Weisz, and Eyal Levine. Uri Levine, who serves as chairman of FeeX, believes people working together can save each other money by identifying and minimizing financial fees. Levine said, “12 years ago Wikipedia was just an experiment in crowdsourcing information, but today, traditional companies like Britannica can’t keep up. People trust people, and the benefits of collective intelligence are exactly what
is fostering.”
In Israel, FeeX says that within three months of the launch of its pilot campaign, it expects to save early adopters as much as $2 million dollars in fees. It claims that crowdsourcing and crowdsaving go hand in hand.
FeeX says that it will use the proceeds to bring the wisdom of the crowd to a problem felt by over 150 million Americans spending billions of dollars in hidden and excessive financial fees. It cites a study by Demos, a non-partisan public policy research and advocacy organization, Americans pay an average of $155, 000 in 401(k) fees over the course of their careers. Statistics like these are especially problematic for the 71% of Americans who think their 401(k) plans are free, according to reports from the American Association of Retired Persons (AARP). If in the Internet age so many people still know so little about their futures, it may be that personal finance is still all too personal.
“We are culturally preconditioned not to seek help from or discuss personal finances with others, even family members. The only help is slim and costly insight from financial advisors, ” says FeeX. Its online platform allows people to give and receive financial insight from their peers, freely and objectively. It is trying to balance the asymmetry of financial information – a commodity controlled and understood by a small minority. It seeks to level the playing field so that everyone has access to the same financial intelligence so that when the company launches in the US, the best financial advice could come from a colleague or even a neighbor.
“FeeX’s visionary and dynamic management team are employing unique technology to solve difficult problems in an enormous market, ” says Blumberg Capital managing partner David Blumberg. “We believe the crowd-sourced power of FeeX will revolutionize the financial services industry.”
“12 years ago Wikipedia was just an experiment in crowdsourcing information, but today, now traditional companies like Britannica can’t keep up, ” says Levine. “People trust people, and the benefits of collective intelligence are exactly what FeeX is fostering.”
Published by www.globes-online.com
