There’s a new app on a mission to pay off debt that you are probably familiar with: student loans.
U.S. borrowers owe a total of $1.5 trillion in student loans, making these loans the second-largest type of consumer debt in the country. (Yes, you read that right, trillion.)
The average person graduates with 30,000 in debt, needing 20 years to pay it off. Moreover, women owe more student debt due to the gender pay gap, resulting in them needing two extra years to pay off their loans.
In short: student debt is a huge issue.
That’s where Pillar comes in.
Pillar is an app that helps people understand, control and pay off their student loans. The application consolidates all of your student loans and then calculates the most efficient way to pay down debt after assessing your loans, income and spending. After consolidating your loans and income, it automates the payment and management process.
The idea was sparked in 2018 by CEO and co founder, Michael Bloch, when he and his wife were figuring out how to pay off over $300k in student debt. After much research but no real solution, Bloch set out to help the 45 million Americans struggling with the same problem.
Bloch told Built In that Pillar’s seed round funding will be put toward doubling the startup’s ten-person team, focusing primarily on engineering roles. Pillar will also be releasing new features in the upcoming months designed to help people save smarter and pay their debts faster.
The app is currently in beta, with a waitlist that already has thousands of people lined up.
