SAN FRANCISCO, Dec. 04, 2020 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Paceline, the first retail health and wellness platform that incentivizes consumers to live a healthy lifestyle, has announced a $5 million seed investment co-led by Montage Ventures and Propel Venture Partners, with participation from Northwestern Mutual Future Ventures, Courtside Ventures, GreatPoint Ventures, Lux Capital, Clocktower Technology Ventures, NextView Ventures, and angel investor Mark McCombe, Senior Managing Director at BlackRock, in his personal capacity.
Paceline is the only retail wellness platform that rewards and incentivizes physical activity with material financial benefit from consumer health and wellness brands and retail financial services - from credit cards and banking to life and health insurance. The platform tracks physical activity through wearables and leverages customer spending data, accessed through a linked credit card, to curate health and wellness rewards. Paceline is using this data to build financial products from the inside out, starting with the first health and wellness credit card and dynamically priced life insurance products to change the nature of preventive health in society.
“Having spent my career in insurance and banking, I know that healthier consumers are also better customers. They buy more, cost less, and drive substantially greater profitability across financial products,” said Joel Lieginger, CEO and founder of Paceline. “But our goal isn’t just to build a financial services company focused on healthy customers; we’re building a platform that helps people live healthier, longer, and better lives by giving them significant financial rewards and access to products and brands they love for doing the things that will improve their health both now and in the long run.”
Today, the majority of healthcare investment is focused on better treating those who are already chronically ill with conditions like diabetes and heart disease. Paceline was built to keep people from suffering from these chronic diseases in the first place. The company does this by providing significant incentives to live an active lifestyle, which is one of the most important contributors to long term health.
The financial services industry represents more than a third of total corporate profit worldwide, and building vertical finance through health and wellness and across credit, banking, and insurance represents an unprecedented market opportunity. Paceline is creating a flywheel that drives a virtuous cycle of shared value between consumers, health and wellness partners, and financial services products that is a win-win-win model that will change the nature of preventive health in society.
“We are thrilled to be supporting Paceline’s mission to promote healthier lifestyles. Physical and financial health are tightly connected for the overall wellbeing of the consumer and at Paceline we have the opportunity to reward healthy consumers, and incentivize less healthy ones, with material financial benefit through financial products that better match their lifestyle.” Jay Reinemann, General Partner at Propel Venture Partners.
Paceline members have already logged over 1.2 million workouts, and over 65 million exercise minutes, and over increasingly longer streaks with the earliest members maintaining 40+ weeks of consistent long-term activity. Since the launch of its beta program in January 2020, Paceline customers have earned and redeemed more than 100,000 rewards to more than 50 brand partners representing more than $500k in rewards value and they are just getting started.
For more information please visit https://paceline.fit/ or download at the Apple App Store.
About Paceline
Paceline is the first retail health and wellness platform that incentivizes consumers to live a healthy lifestyle. Paceline's mission is to bring the worlds of physical and financial rewards together by incentivizing people to be active with curated offerings from health and wellness brands that yield healthier people and more valuable customers to partners of all kinds. Consumers earn health and wellness rewards for 150 minutes of elevated heart rate a week. Current investors include Montage Ventures, Propel Venture Partners, Northwestern Mutual Future Ventures, Courtside Ventures, GreatPoint Ventures, Lux Capital, Clocktower Technology Ventures, NextView Ventures, and angels including Mark McCombe, Senior Managing Director at BlackRock, in his personal capacity.
About Montage Ventures
Montage Ventures is an early stage venture capital firm focused on investing in financial services, healthcare and consumer startups. At Montage Ventures, they look for entrepreneurs who lead with passion and a relentless pursuit toward greatness. They engage with our founders early on and empower them, from the initial idea to fully scaled and thriving. Montage Ventures is a destination for startups looking for investment between Angel and Series A rounds. With complete transparency of operating approach and collaboration available anytime, anywhere, they are proud to call over one hundred founders our partners.
About Propel Venture Partners
Propel Venture Partners is a San Francisco-based venture capital firm focused on early-stage investment opportunities at the intersection of technology and financial services. They partner with technology-driven entrepreneurs that are rethinking and rebuilding the future of financial services.