Chimney (Formerly Signal Intent) Completes Seed Investment Round, Unveils New Brand And Mission

Chimney, a provider of financial guidance for the digital age, announced that the company has successfully completed its seed round of funding, exceeding its investment goals. In addition to this capital raise, the company rebranded to better align with its mission to provide exceptional, consumer-facing solutions, changing the company name from Signal Intent to Chimney.

The cofounders of Chimney, Matthew Covi who serves as CEO, Chase Neinken as CRO and Ryan F. Salerno as CTO, met while working together at NewsCred, a four-time Gartner Magic Quadrant Leader for Content Marketing Technology (recently acquired by Optimizely). After holding leadership roles across numerous other companies, they teamed back up in 2020 with the mission to transform financial guidance, creating Signal Intent, now Chimney.

Prior to launching the company, Covi was Head of Growth at Stash, a personal finance unicorn; Neinken was Vice President of Global Sales at Industry Dive, a leading B2B media company; and Salerno was the Technical Co-founder of Equity Token, now Finta, an equity management platform.

With their combined experience, Chimney has seen tremendous growth over the last year. A two-time presenter and Best of Show winner at Finovate, the company is trusted by over 60 of the top financial institutions across 30 states. Most recently, Chimney was selected for the 2022 ICBA ThinkTECH Accelerator. As Chimney continues to grow and add new financial institution clients, the company has aggressive plans to also grow its team, looking to add several key positions over the next several months.

Chimney provides the tools and technology that help financial institutions engage their customers across web and digital banking to fund more loans. The company’s approach helps drive greater customer acquisition by connecting consumers to the right product in the right place at the right time. On average, Chimney’s financial institution clients see a 15% lift in conversions. 

Additionally, by embedding services like Chimney, financial institutions can reduce acquisition costs while growing their loan portfolio. For legacy banks in particular, there is a need to significantly increase both the scale and pace at which they innovate. Looking ahead, consumers will increasingly expect proactive AI-driven recommendations on how to meet financial objectives. Chimney is helping financial institutions achieve this. 

According to Neinken, “We created Chimney to build the future of financial guidance. We believe in a world where people are empowered to make better financial decisions through technology – it’s about confidence and understanding. The demand so far has exceeded expectations and we’re thankful to our clients, partners and investors. Big things are coming ahead.”

Among the investors are Anil Aggarwal, founder and CEO of Fintech Meetup and Personatech, and creator of Money20/20, later acquired by Ascential. Other investors include Fin VC, a global venture capital firm focused on the intersection of financial services and technology; and Converge, a venture firm bringing long term, committed capital to B2B tech entrepreneurs and their teams.

According to Converge’s co-founder and general partner Nilanjana Bhowmik, “At Converge, we build partnerships based on mutual trust to deliver world-class solutions and services with the goal of driving businesses forward. That’s why we have invested in Chimney. With this partnership, our mission is to support Chimney’s current and steady growth and position them for even greater strength.”

“Banking is fundamentally changing as consumer behaviors shift,” said Covi. “To compete, banks must change their digital strategy. It is no longer about providing outstanding products and services. It’s about the value they provide through digital experiences. As consumers increasingly make financial decisions online, they expect experiences that are embedded in their everyday life, Chimney is committed to delivering not just the products consumers want, but the experiences they expect.” 

Covi continued, “To support our ongoing mission and long-term strategy, we are excited to work with some of the industry’s leaders, including Anil Aggarwal, Fin VC, Converge and others. Together, we are innovating the consumer experience and creating game-changing solutions for financial institutions, now and in the future.”