
Candidly is on a mission to empower Americans to pay off debt while simultaneously building wealth. Since our founding in 2016, we’ve been defining what’s new, now, and next in financial wellness — with solutions ranging from comprehensive employee benefit offerings that help the modern workforce repay student debt, plan and pay for college, build emergency savings, and save for retirement, to sophisticated AI systems that enable financial and workplace services providers to deliver personalized guidance at scale. Through our partnerships with leading employers, workplace service providers, and financial institutions, Candidly is positioned to serve 1 in 2 U.S. workers. Candidly is backed by leading investors including Aflac, Equal Opportunity Ventures, Impact Engine, Rethink Impact, Salesforce Ventures, UBS, Unum, and Vulcan Capital. We’ve been recognized on a number of industry lists, including Fast Company’s Most Innovative Companies (2024), Forbes Fintech 50 (2023), and honored as a World Economic Forum Technology Pioneer (2025), an Inc. Magazine Best in Business Award winner (2023), a Wealth Management Industry Award winner (2023) and four-time Fintech Breakthrough Award winner (2022 - 2025). Visit getcandidly.com to learn more.

Candidly is on a mission to empower Americans to pay off debt while simultaneously building wealth. Since our founding in 2016, we’ve been defining what’s new, now, and next in financial wellness — with solutions ranging from comprehensive employee benefit offerings that help the modern workforce repay student debt, plan and pay for college, build emergency savings, and save for retirement, to sophisticated AI systems that enable financial and workplace services providers to deliver personalized guidance at scale. Through our partnerships with leading employers, workplace service providers, and financial institutions, Candidly is positioned to serve 1 in 2 U.S. workers. Candidly is backed by leading investors including Aflac, Equal Opportunity Ventures, Impact Engine, Rethink Impact, Salesforce Ventures, UBS, Unum, and Vulcan Capital. We’ve been recognized on a number of industry lists, including Fast Company’s Most Innovative Companies (2024), Forbes Fintech 50 (2023), and honored as a World Economic Forum Technology Pioneer (2025), an Inc. Magazine Best in Business Award winner (2023), a Wealth Management Industry Award winner (2023) and four-time Fintech Breakthrough Award winner (2022 - 2025). Visit getcandidly.com to learn more.
Mission: AI-driven platform that helps Americans repay student debt while building savings and retirement readiness.
Founding / Rebrand: Founded in 2016 (originally FutureFuel.io) and rebranded to Candidly in 2022 after acquiring College Finance Company.
Funding: Total funding $57M; Series B $20.5M led by Altos Ventures (announced March 7, 2023).
Products: Workplace financial-wellness benefits plus products including Onward (API-first debt management) and Cait (multi-agent conversational AI).
Leadership: Founder & CEO: Laurel Taylor.
Student loan repayment, college planning and education-related expenses, emergency savings, and workplace financial wellness.
2016
Financial Services
$20.5M
Follow-on participation from Cercano Management.
“Backed by venture and strategic investors including Altos Ventures, Breton Capital, Cercano Management, Impact Engine, Rethink Impact, Salesforce Ventures, Silicon Valley Bank, UBS, Unum, Aflac, Equal Opportunity Ventures, and Vulcan Capital.”