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BFD Expert Voices - Private Credit

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Personal finance and budgeting startup Monarch has acquired the fintech formerly known as HMBradley, its leaders tell Axios exclusively. 

The company hit $100 million in annual recurring revenue in September on the back of a growth wave.

Why it matters: Monarch wants to evolve into a one-stop shop for users to actively manage and automate their capital. 

Context: Founded in 2018, Monarch exploded in popularity in 2025 after Intuit shut down its Mint budgeting tool. 

Monarch raised $75 million at an $850 million valuation that spring, on the heels of that growth.

The company has grown more than 100% year over year on an ARR basis, says Monarch CEO Val Agostino‚ and now has over 1 million subscribers.

Beyond the exit of a major competitor, consumer sentiment also dipped to a 12-year low recently, which may also play a role in driving demand.

What they're saying: "Monarch is great at the informational piece — we have AI advisers that tell you what you should do," says Agostino. "But then the next step is how do we actually automate that... in a privacy-centric way?"

The deal, effectively an acquihire, will make HMBradley founder Zach Bruhnke the lead of Monarch Labs, a new position that explores new products and business lines.

Six HMBradley employees will also join the company.

HMBradley's team brings expertise in financial services and money movement plumbing that Monarch lacked, Agostino adds.

Zoom in: Founded in 2018 as a consumer-focused neobank, HMBradley subsequently pivoted to a B2B model. It plans to discontinue that product.

Investors in HMBradley, which include Castle Creek Capital Launchpad I, Discover Financial, Commerce Ventures, Acrew Capital, Pelion Ventures and Walkabout Ventures, are getting Monarch stock as part of the deal. 

Additional details of the deal were not disclosed, but Bruhnke has previously said that the company's last valuation was below $90 million as of 2023.

Becoming a part of Monarch "is a chance to get back and do what we were doing, what we love doing, which is serving consumers and building a consumer brand," says Bruhnke.

What we're watching: Large language labs like OpenAI and even tech companies are releasing agents that encroach on the personal finance space. But the duo believe there are complexities in financial services that make it hard for agentic players to completely dominate the market.

Agents often get incomplete data from a single aggregator, Agostino argues, while Monarch has sought to add accounts from auto values to precious metals and beyond.

Consumers, he says, will also be unlikely to fully trust some of these agents with the full suite of their data, given the history of using it for advertising, for example.

Between the lines: Monarch has not yet announced new products, but ideas have included helping users automatically move money from a no-yield savings account to a high-yield one.

Exclusive: Personal finance startup Monarch buys HMBradley

Monarch hit $100 million in ARR as it transitions from insights to action.

Illustration of an open safe revealing a spreadsheet of data. 

Personal finance and budgeting startup Monarch has acquired the fintech formerly known as HMBradley, its leaders tell Axios exclusively. <ul><li>The company hit $100 million in annual recurring revenue in September on the back of a growth wave.</li></ul>Why it matters: Monarch wants to evolve into a one-stop shop for users to actively manage and automate their capital.

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Exclusive: Personal finance startup Monarch buys HMBradley

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