Our founders’ story

In 2009, entrepreneurial couple George Friedman and Katherine Salisbury wanted to save for their wedding, as well as a trip, a piano, and a rainy-day. But after opening 13 accounts, they realized their savings strategy wasn’t paying off. They realized most personal financial management tools weren’t straightforward solutions, and they saw the tradeoffs they had to make in order to prioritize where their savings went.

That real-world experience gave them the insight to disrupt the traditional banking world and develop a new way to save. While working at Scandinavian brokerage bank Avanza, George met Erik Akterin, now co-founder and CTO for Qapital. The two worked tirelessly to create a new kind of savings offering – one that replaced compromise with a wondrous sense of achievement. That became the simple idea behind Qapital: saving for the wonderful things you want to own or experience shouldn’t come at the cost of everyday happiness.

Saving became effortless for so many, so we thought, why stop there? Investing has been intimidating in the past, so we got rid of the jargon and went with a simple way to plan for life’s big goals. To help people spend more mindfully, we created tools that balance the money for everyday expenses with near-future and long-term goals. And because we’re rooted in behavioral science, we’re launching fun challenges that help people get even more happiness from every dollar spent and saved.

Today, the new Qapital intelligently rolls up spending, savings and investing with powerful tools and insights in one harmonious app for a newfound money confidence you won’t get anywhere else. And we’re just getting started.