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Solutions
Company Stage
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Solutions
Company Stage
eCommerce
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A non-technical founder had the idea to build a new fintech product that would empower consumers to save up instead of taking on credit. Once he found an engineering team with banking technology expertise, what could stop him from revolutionizing eCommerce payments.
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The Team
Full-stack Developer
Software Engineer
QA Engineer
Full-stack Developer
The results
$30M
Raised
77%
Boost in Conversion
10mo.
Zero to One App development
The scope
1
Missions
1.5
Years
Active
Status
Prototyping
Web App Development
Improvements
the challenge
Sixty percent of Americans save up for big purchases. But until recently, the only option embedded into ecommerce checkout was BNPL, which is no better than taking on credit card debt. Accrue Savings aimed to revolutionize this shopping experience by offering brand-embedded online savings accounts to customers.
Their vision was to build a product that integrated seamlessly with large-scale retailers and provided delightful, user-oriented features. The challenge was to validate the viability of the product in just a few months. And they needed the highest level of expertise in financial technology to get it done.
Embedded merchant check-out
Savings account API
Compliance Solutions
the a.team solution
Hershfield had the idea but he needed an engineering team to prototype the product and build an MVP from scratch. “A.Team is a key reason for why we’ve been able to get the momentum we’ve had,” Hirshfield said. “It allows us to scale our engineering at a pace that other companies find impossible. A.Team really is a competitive advantage for us.”
Banking tech experience
In order to tackle the compliance challenges inherent in a new fintech product, banking tech experience is a must.
Rapid deployment
Accrue needed talent right away to put tech into place before the Christmas code freeze in the retail industry. “A.Team knew what needed to get done and how to attract the talent that would allow me to do it at speed.”
Team integration
Making A.Team engineers a part of the core team was part of the strategy. “A.Team aligned along the way. This approach created unification. Everyone rowing in the same direction.”
Michael Hershfield - Founder & CEO @Accrue Savings
Otavio Costa - Full-Stack Developer
building the team
The most important resource in an advanced economy is talent. But great talent is hard to find. Hirshfield came to A.Team to find a core engineering team with senior-level experience in banking technology. “I have to give A.Team a lot of credit,” Hershfield said. “When they built my initial team, and expanded my team to go to market, they made sure that there were people that understood the intricacies of launching a banking technology company.”
Front End Developer
Otavio C.
Full-stack Developer
Eldar C.
Full-stack Developer
Saša Š.
building the product
With greater fintech engineering firepower at hand, Accrue took its product from initial concepts to a fully-functional, user-friendly platform that modernizes retail savings and transforms customer engagement. They did rapid prototyping and iteration, and took a customer-centric approach to design and development.
To validate the product, Accrue conducted extensive user testing, seeking feedback from potential customers and incorporating that feedback into their development process. Accrue Savings is now an embedded payment option for more than 35 major merchants—including brands like SmileDirectClub, Eterneva, and Casper.
results
Using the product A.Team built from 0 to 1 in under 10 months, Accrue Savings was able to raise a $4.7M Seed in November of 2021, followed quickly by a $25M series A led by Tiger Global in January 2022—a rare velocity of fundraising for a tech startup.
In less than ten months they became a substantial business with multiple public and growth company partners. They also saw a 77% boost in conversion for merchants and reach a less than 1% abandon rate. Later that year the product won the Time Magazine Best Invention award.
$30M
Raised
77%
Boost in Conversion
10mo.
Zero to One App development
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