Enabling a Brighter Future for the Next Generation with EarlyBird

The current economic climate is causing uncertainty for many investors. Coupled with rising inflation and housing costs, we’re seeing a clearer picture of just how wide the wealth gap is growing for younger generations (Millennials, Gen Z, even Gen X) and marginalized groups. They face increasing economic pressure and anxieties around their future financial stability. But there's lots of promise in the rapidly growing fintech space.

Access to personal finance education and, more importantly, access to the right smart investing tools is key to helping these groups attain financial freedom. In fact, the annual TIAA Institute-GFLEC Personal Finance Index reports have consistently found financial wellness linked to financial literacy. And while the latest report shows younger generations in the lowest percentiles, they also possess the greatest desire to learn and improve financial outcomes for themselves and their families.

This begs the question—

How can we amplify financial education efforts and build better avenues to investing for the future with the youngest generations?

As a fintech focused on opening access to venture investing opportunities and building a community platform grounded in educational resources, we are hyper-aware of the growing need for better wealth-building opportunities for all people.

This is why we we're so excited to invest into EarlyBird as one of our first portfolio investments with the Sweater Cashmere Fund

Building for the future with EarlyBird

EarlyBird is a family wealth-building platform that allows parents, relatives, and friends to collectively invest in a child's financial future, even before birth. EarlyBird empowers families to invest in a modern portfolio that includes traditional assets and crypto while leaving a legacy of love in the form of videos, photos, and meaningful messages.

EarlyBird’s founders, Jordan Wexler and Caleb Frankel, started the company with the vision to create an accessible way for all families to begin building wealth for their children, and to do so with the support, love, and contributions of their broader communities.

Watch the video below for an in-depth look at the story behind EarlyBird.


Since launching in December 2020, EarlyBird has helped tens of thousands of families invest in their children—many with incredible stories showing the impact EarlyBird can have on instilling the practice of long-term planning from a young age and building a substantial nest egg, like this story of a one-year-old getting over $60,000 for his birthday.

A foundation of emotional capital

By allowing users and contributors to upload photos, videos, and special messages along with their gifts, EarlyBird attaches emotional capital as tangible footnotes to the love and support of a child’s community over the years.

In addition to the special collection from loved ones, parents have the ability to capture and share their child’s story with “moments.” Moments like a child’s first steps or first day of school can be shared with family and friends, who can then celebrate and invest in each one.

All together, these photos and videos will create a beautiful time capsule that grows alongside the child’s nest egg. It’s truly a remarkable way to reinforce the ideas and practice of financial planning. EarlyBird’s educational content sinks into its users through these personal anecdotes and memories.

Why we invested into EarlyBird

Since their launch, EarlyBird has seen incredible growth, adoption, and excitement from families with a wide range of financial knowledge and backgrounds. We had the opportunity to support EarlyBird as a special strategic investor following their seed round led by Alex Ohanian’s Seven Seven Six Ventures, along with Gemini’s Frontier Fund, Network Ventures, Rarebreed Ventures, and others.


Building a brighter future for the next generation

Family and investing are important at Sweater. EarlyBird empowers families and children by providing tools that introduce investing, integrate financial knowledge into decision-making, and prepare children for account ownership at age 18. While users on the platform range from new and expecting parents up to parents with teens, EarlyBird focuses on the former. Acquiring users much earlier in their lives allows their children more time to accumulate financial “gifts” throughout childhood.

Fintech democratization & community investing

Similar to Sweater, EarlyBird is dedicated to breaking down traditional barriers within the financial ecosystem by driving financial literacy, empowerment, and freedom for current and future generations. With an estimated total available market of $50 billion that spans from Gen Z through Boomer generations, there is incredible opportunity for EarlyBird to grow. As younger generations increasingly show interest in emerging fintech investing platforms, we’re very excited about how EarlyBird nestles into families’ investing strategies.

Get started with a gift from EarlyBird

As a show of gratitude to the Sweater community, the team at EarlyBird is offering a $15 gift toward your first investment. Launch your little one’s first investment account, or make a contribution to any child in your life.

Redeem your $15 GIFT from EarlyBird

EarlyBird is also offering a further incentive to Sweater members by increasing the Sweater Cashmere Fund’s equity share in EarlyBird for new accounts created through this special offer between now and March of 2023. Any of your friends and family who create an account using this referral link count towards the goal, too. This is incredible.

It means that you, as a Sweater member, can have a direct impact in growing the value of your investment in the Sweater Cashmere Fund by sharing EarlyBird with your community. This is just the beginning of our vision for a truly impactful and transformational venture community—one that is directly engaged in shaping the future of how we live.

Category
Investments & Portfolio Updates
Written by
The Sweater Team
Published on
January 25, 2023
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Disclosure: Investors should carefully consider the investment objectives, risks, charges, and expenses of the Fund before investing. The prospectus contains this and other information about the Fund and can be obtained by calling 1-888-577-7987 or by visiting the Fund’s website at www.sweaterventures.com/cashmerefund. Please read the prospectus carefully before investing. All investments involve risks, and past performance is no guarantee of future results.