Monday, December 17, 2007

Geezeo hooks $585 'Gs' of its own in seed funding

By Christopher Calnan

A Framingham startup whose technology helps users manage their personal finances via the web now has more finances of its own to manage.

DebtFolio Inc., which started last year and operates under the name Geezeo, has attracted $585,000 from 12 investors, according to a filing with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission.

The company plans to raise $2 million, according to the late October SEC filing.

Co-founder Peter Glyman said the company is still raising seed financing and plans to complete a Series A financing round of an undetermined amount during the first quarter 2008.

Geezeo operates online personal finance manager Geezeo.com, a website that enables users to track the status of loans, bank accounts and investments.

The website also hosts online discussion groups based on financial topics.

Investors include Hub Angel Investment Group LLC in Cambridge, which lists several portfolio companies in the financial services and related industries, including Exit 41 Inc. of Andover, Experion Systems Inc. of Maynard and Vestmark Inc. of Wakefield.

Glyman declined to disclose the number of Geezeo users, but said its user base has doubled during the last 40 days. The startup has yet to establish a revenue model, but Glyman said that should happen during the next three months. The company is considering paid sponsorships of various website elements as a revenue source, he said.

Geezeo plans to provide information on various financial products and enable users to rate the products. "Think of an Amazon.com for personal finance products," he said.

Geezeo's target market is young people, and so far 90 percent of its users are between 18 years old and 35 years old, officials said. The predominant use of debit cards by consumers in that age range bodes well for the company, said David Verrill, founder and managing director of Geezeo investor Hub Angel.

Woburn-based ByAllAccounts, California-based Wesabe Inc. and New Jersey-based Albridge Solutions Inc. produce similar online financial aggregation tools.

The company was founded with an undisclosed amount of investment from friends and family last year by Glyman and Shawn Ward, both former co-workers on the GainsKeeper website for Wolters Kluwer Financial Services in Waltham.

Geezeo, which adopted its name from the slang term for $1,000 -- or a "G," now employs 10 workers.