NEW YORK — Summer –– an end-to-end workplace student loan solution that saves employees money –– announced $9 million in additional funding.
The round was led by Rebalance Capital and SemperVirens, with participation from General Catalyst, QED, Flourish Ventures, Partnership Fund for NYC, Fenway Summer, and Gaingels. With the round, Summer plans to expand its leadership team, grow its Advisory Board, and further enhance its tech-based solution that makes it simple to implement a range of student loan and education assistance benefits, including Secure 2.0 Student Loan Retirement Matching, Tuition Assistance and Student Loan Contributions, 529 Plan enrollment and matching, as well as enrollment in the SAVE Plan, Public Service Loan Forgiveness, and more than 100 free student loan assistance programs.
Mounting college costs and student loans are a pressing concern for employees across industries and income levels. This debt impacts their ability to achieve other financial goals. Even when student loan payments were paused, 38% of borrowers reported they delayed saving for retirement due to the burden of that debt. Now, with payments resumed, nearly three-quarters of employees expect that payments will impact their ability to save for retirement. These financial concerns also impact employers. A recent study by the ADP Research Institute reports that about half of workers are in the process of leaving their workplace, and among workers with student loan debt, that number increases to nearly 60%.
Employers have long considered student loan assistance a perk, rather than a true benefit. However, with student loan payments restarting as of October 2023, the recent introduction of Student Loan Matching thanks to SECURE 2.0, and the CARES Act making student loan contributions tax-favorable, HR leaders are increasingly aware of the importance of student loan benefits to reduce the financial burden on employees, and their potential for talent attraction and retention for college-educated employees.
“Summer is helping over 800 employers, including Fortune 500s, hospital systems, and state governments and municipalities, take advantage of the many opportunities available to reduce the stress of college costs and student loan debt,” said Will Sealy, CEO and founder of Summer. “With this most recent funding, we’ll be able to provide our best-in-class technology solution to help even more employers and their employees.”
“What a lot of HR leaders are still catching on to is that there are so many ways to help ease the financial stress of student loans and boost retention –– direct contribution is what most think of, but it’s only one option,” said Robby Peters, the Managing Partner of SemperVirens, a leader in workplace technology investments. “We believe Summer is uniquely equipped to help forward-thinking HR leaders navigate the complexity of student loan benefits and make it simple and cost-effective to offer benefits to employees.”
Josh Tanenbaum, the Managing Partner of Rebalance Capital, a leading FinTech and WorkforceTech investor, added, “Education expenses are a pressing concern for the majority of employees. Whether they’re paying down their own debt or their partner’s, student debt has been the single largest barrier in the United States to achieving key wealth creation events, such as retirement and home ownership. We’re investing in Summer because the company is at the forefront of a new generation of financial wellness benefits to address this critical challenge, and because it has the breadth of solutions and depth of tech and talent to deliver.”
