BankSimple raise $3.1 before launch

BankSimple has secured $3.1m

BankSimple, an online banking start-up, has secured its first funding round and plans to launch a beta version of ‘family and friends' by late October.

The New York based outfit disclosed this week that it raised its first venture funding in a round led by First Round Capital, Roger Ehrenberg's IA Ventures, and Village Ventures, along with seed investors SV Angel (Ron Conway) and Nauiokas Park, and Jerry Neumann.

BankSimple is keeping Mum on the amount it has raised, but TechCrunch is reporting a figure around $2.9 million, with an additional $190,000 raised last year in convertible debt.

"Assuming we can get our cards issued before this blackout period, we'd like to do a "friends and family" test later this year. That test will help us iron out any technical issues with our partner integrations and provide us with essential feedback," says the BankSimple blog. "Once we're satisfied that our initial service is stable and secure, we'll begin bringing on customers who signed up for an invitation."

BankSimple will try and succeed where other banks have failed, both in Europe and in the US, by offering a "better choice," using technology that doesn't impose overdrafts, minimum balances or monthly fees. Transactions using BankSimple will be online or via smartphone.

"We built BankSimple because we were disappointed with our banks and wanted something better. At our previous banks, simple things like paying bills, transferring money and keeping track of balances were a pain. They gave us complicated features to 'help' us manage our money, but they made them hard to use - perhaps because they earn so much from overdraft fees."

Customers have a single account for checking, savings and credit, all from one card. The service also includes financial analysis tools and lets users import historical data from Mint, Wesabe, Quicken and Yodlee.

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