Fintech startup SecureSave, a 2020 spinout of Seattle’s Pioneer Square Labs, has been acquired by Wisconsin-based HSA Bank.
SecureSave helps employers offer a financial wellness benefit to workers beyond their paycheck in the form of an emergency savings account (ESA). HSA Bank is a division of Webster Bank and Webster Financial Corp. and is one of the nation’s leaders in healthcare savings and spending accounts.
Terms of the deal, completed Thursday, were not disclosed.
SecureSave employs 23 people full time, most of whom are in the Seattle area, and will continue to operate its current platform and serve its clients.
The startup was co-founded by CEO Devin Miller, CTO Bassam Saliba, and TV personality and best-selling author Suze Orman.
Miller previously led Balance Financial, a Seattle-area startup acquired by Blucora’s TaxAct subsidiary in 2013. He later joined Guidant Financial as executive vice president and later president. Saliba is another longtime entrepreneur who sold Avado to WebMD in 2013 and was a board member/acting CTO at Balance Financial alongside Miller.
SecureSave raised about $28 million to date, with venture backing from PSL, Seachange and IA Ventures, and three banks — Truist, Stearns and Webster.
Miller, who is based in Spokane, Wash., said SecureSave has supported more than 60,000 active emergency savings account holders who have saved more than $100 million to date.
Miller said the company had a strong year of growth and that interest in the category can be evidenced by legislation proposed this week in Congress. U.S. Senators Cory Booker (D-NJ) and Todd Young (R-IN) introduced the Emergency Savings Enhancement Act, aimed at helping American workers and families save for unexpected expenses without having to tap into their retirement accounts.
In a post on LinkedIn, Miller wrote about how the HSA deal came together and why it will be “a massive leap forward for ESAs.”
Miller pitched SecureSave during the 2022 season of GeekWire’s “Elevator Pitch” series.
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