Candidly Releases Inaugural Impact Report

Report highlights the company's positive impact on student loan borrowers as well as key company milestones

Candidly, the leading AI-driven student debt and savings optimization platform, released today its 2023 Impact Report, which highlights customer profiles and shares key milestones met by the company in 2023. Achievements featured in the report include surpassing $1 billion in projected impact over the life of the loans of its end users, the vast majority of whom are offered Candidly as a workplace benefit from their employer. This number represents the total dollar impact that Candidly users are on track to realize as a result of actions taken and payments facilitated through the Candidly platform; for example, dollars saved on interest from extra payments, monthly savings from income-driven repayment plans, and projected forgiveness amounts.

These thresholds were crossed in a year full of landmark events, including the Supreme Court’s rejection of the Biden-Harris Student Debt Relief Plan and the return of monthly federal student loan payments following the end of a three-and-a-half-year-long moratorium. Amid these twists and turns, Candidly drove significant value — for its strategic distribution partners, employer customers, and their employees — through the company’s student loan repayment and optimization solutions:

• Core Platform - Qualifying users lowered their federal student loan payment by an average of $335 per month with the help of Candidly’s core platform, which empowers borrowers to discover, select, and apply for federal repayment plans, including the new SAVE plan, in minutes.
• Tax-Advantaged Student Loan Employer Contributions - Candidly tripled the dollars sent to student debt via employer-sponsored student loan repayment contributions in 2023. This benefit unlocks a major boost in employee retention — workers who received repayment contributions through Candidly were 76% less likely to leave their employer.
• Public Service Loan Forgiveness (PSLF) - Among workers who submitted a PSLF application using Candidly’s digital experience, 67% were first-time applicants despite an average of six years of tenure with their employer. To date, borrowers who leverage Candidly’s PSLF solution are on track to have $53,210 forgiven on average.
• Student Loan Coaching - 2023 saw a 226% increase in the number of coaching sessions scheduled by workers, driven in part by a rising need for one-on-one guidance amid the return of federal student loan repayment. Despite this spike in demand, the quality of the service never wavered, with borrowers reporting a 77% increase in confidence following their coaching session.

“The achievements we reached in 2023 are the result of our team’s deep connection to the problems we’re working to solve, our belief that compassion is at the core of innovation, and the confidence and trust of our customers, partners, investors, and greater community,” said Laurel Taylor, Founder and CEO of Candidly.

In addition to these achievements in customer and user outcomes, 2023 saw a number of business milestones for Candidly, including the announcement of the close of its Series B funding round, led by Altos Ventures. The impact of that capital underscored Candidly’s position as the category leader, as is evident in the growth and industry recognition the company enjoyed throughout the year.

New Products

From its inception, Candidly’s mission has been to enable hard working Americans to go beyond student debt into wellness and, ultimately, wealth. Candidly made massive strides in building the bridge between debt and wealth in 2023 through the introduction of essential solutions supported by policy passage from Washington.

Candidly launched its Student Loan Retirement Match solution, operationalizing SECURE 2.0’s transformative provision that enables employers to match workers’ student loan payments with tax-advantaged retirement contributions. A first-mover in this market, Candidly serves several leading recordkeepers, powering the student loan retirement match across their plan sponsor and participant community, and can also be implemented by plan sponsors directly, plugging into their existing service providers. Last fall, Candidly’s Student Loan Retirement Match solution was recognized with a WealthManagement.com Industry Award for Best 401(k) Service.

Candidly also launched its Emergency Savings solution in 2023, which empowers workers to build a safety net for unexpected financial challenges proactively. Candidly’s Emergency Savings solution enables workers to automate savings behaviors via payroll deduction, scheduled contributions, and effortlessly rounding up spare change from everyday transactions to contribute to their emergency fund passively. The addition of emergency savings to its suite of student debt-focused solutions enables Candidly to serve every employee population, regardless of their student debt status.

New Customers and Partnerships

Hundreds of employers launched Candidly in 2023, including adidas, Bread Financial, Montrose Regional Health, and Prince William County Schools. With this growth, Candidly is now poised to serve 1 in 4 American workers. Candidly also added a number of prominent distribution partnerships in 2023, including HUB International, PNC, and several other partners not yet announced, adding to an existing roster of partners that also includes Empower, Guild, UBS, and Vanguard.

Awards and Recognition

Candidly received a number of industry recognitions this year, beginning with the distinction of Best Student Loan Management Platform in the 2023 Fintech Breakthrough Awards. In June, Candidly was named as a newcomer to the Forbes Fintech 50, a highly competitive award seeking to recognize the top companies transforming finance through technology. Most recently, Candidly was named to Inc.’s Best in Business list in the category of Financial Services.

The 2023 Candidly Impact Report can be viewed here.

About Candidly

Candidly is an AI-driven student debt and savings optimization platform that addresses the full lifecycle of education expenses and empowers people to make simultaneous progress on paying down student debt and building wealth. Candidly partners with leading employers and financial services companies serving the workplace like 401(k) and 403(b) recordkeepers, retirement plan advisors, and more, creating a holistic and inclusive workplace benefit and embedded finance solution.

Candidly is backed by leading venture capital and strategic investors including Altos Ventures, Breton Capital, Cercano Management, Impact Engine, Rethink Impact, Salesforce Ventures, UBS, and Unum. For more information, visit www.getcandidly.com.

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