Level Debuts Budgeting App for Millennials

Mobile-first financial services company Level had a lot to celebrate Friday: the launch of its debut product and the closing of a $5 million funding round that included former Citigroup (NYSE: C) chairman and chief executive Sandy Weill.

The company's first product is an iPhone app that aims to take the hassle out of budgeting for young people, according to Level's Friday press release. The Level Money app, now available in the Apple Store, automatically analyzes users' finances to calculate income, recurring expenses and recommended savings each month. It then calculates how much money users have to spend on a daily, weekly, and monthly basis. Every time users make a purchase, the app gauges how much cash they have left to spend that day.
The app is targeted at millennials, according to Level chief executive and co-founder Jake Fuentes. "Our generation doesn't think about money the way our parents do," Fuentes said in a Friday press release. "We need a totally new approach to finance that's mobile-first, radically simple, and completely effortless. Budgeting is dead, and that's why we've taken the 'quantified self' approach; instead of applying the technology to personal fitness, we're applying it to personal finance."

Level has partnered with software company Intuit to manage customers' sensitive banking data, according to the release.

The company also announced the initial closing of a $5 million Series A funding round led by Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers. Notable investors from the financial world included Weill and former Barclays Global Investors chief executive Blake Grossman.

Other personal financial management software providers, including ImpulseSave and SmartyPig, keep track of consumers' spending versus their goals and warn them when they should not indulge that craving for a pair of stylish boots they can't afford.