Realworld Raises $3.4 Million in Oversubscribed Seed Round

NEW YORK, April 15, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- Realworld, a platform, marketplace, and community to navigate adulthood, announced today that it has closed an oversubscribed $3.4 million seed round, led by Fitz Gate Ventures, with participation from Bezos Expeditions (the personal investment company of Jeff Bezos), Knightsgate Ventures, The Helm, Great Oaks VC, Copper Wire Ventures, Amplifyher Ventures, Underdog Labs, Human Ventures, and Brilliant Friends. Previous backer Techstars also participated in the round.  

Realworld helps simplify adulthood by providing comprehensive guidance, tools, and resources around major life topics not covered in school. The free platform includes nearly 100 step-by-step "playbooks"-  everything from getting a credit card to filling out employer paperwork - complete with guidance, tooling, and a marketplace of curated service providers. After creating an account, members work towards completing their Realworld "Starter Pack" by setting up the basics across finance, health care, and living situation. Realworld is building a robust community on the platform to provide peer-to-peer insights in addition to expert advice.  

"From day one, our mission has always been the same - simplify adulthood," says founder Genevieve Ryan Bellaire, a lawyer turned entrepreneur who experienced the challenges of entering the workforce after graduation firsthand. Bellaire left the corporate world to tackle the age-old problem - no one prepares you to navigate life in the "real world". Despite being a lawyer, with an MBA, she made her own mistakes across her finances, health care, and living situation, leading her to realize that while she was educated, she was unprepared to navigate many critical life decisions. As the eldest child in her family, she didn't have a trusted source of guidance around these topics and found herself relying on Google searches. After confiding in her friends and realizing that nearly all of them had experienced similar frustrations, Bellaire saw a white space in the market to create a centralized platform to navigate adulthood.  

"We started with education because we found the knowledge gap around these topics to be so profound. People didn't know what they didn't know. We have since expanded Realworld to provide a proactive and engaging solution to help the next generation set themselves up for success - taking education one step further to generate action, " said Bellaire. "We've built a fundamentally helpful product and subject-matter expertise around life's major milestones and stages. The solutions out there right now - namely, asking friends, colleagues, parents and Googling things - just aren't cutting it. We know that if we do our job right, we can change the way everyone navigates important life moments, starting with how they enter the workforce. We are thinking big and are excited to build a category-defining company in this emerging industry."  

Realworld hopes to play a small part in empowering all adults, particularly underrepresented populations,  with its tools and resources. "We decided to make our platform free because we want to be part of leveling the playing field for everyone and provide our members the opportunity to set themselves up for success," said Bellaire.  

Headquartered in NYC, Realworld previously raised $1.1M from strategic angels and operators to build its foundational product and establish a network of 40+ college partners across the country who provide access to the platform for recent graduates. While initially focused on younger adults, Realworld has ambitious plans to support its members throughout other life moments as they grow, as well as serve as a secure repository for important documents and account information.  

About Realworld  
Realworld is a platform, marketplace, and community to navigate adulthood and important life decisions. Through its comprehensive, personalized platform, Realworld provides tools, resources, and guidance to help members manage their finances, health care, living situations, insurance, and other important life decisions. Realworld's initial target market is younger adults who are transitioning into adulthood and living independently for the first time.  

About Fitz Gate Ventures  
Fitz Gate Ventures is an early stage network-driven venture capital firm with a specific, but not exclusive, focus on the Princeton University ecosystem and is currently investing out of its second fund. The firm brings a unique strategic advantage to its portfolio companies by leveraging its proprietary "Friends of Fitz" network, comprised of hundreds of Princeton alumni, faculty, administrators, and trustees who are venture capitalists, startup founders, educators, and senior executives.  

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