It was back in September of 2015 when Prosper announced they had purchased the personal finance analytics company called BillGuard for $30 million. At the time this acquisition made sense, it was a way for Prosper to maintain engagement with their customers and prospects beyond just a loan transaction.
BillGuard was relaunched in March of last year as Prosper Daily with a focus on financial well-being. By downloading the app users could keep track of their spending on their credit card and bank accounts, protect their identity and track their credit score.
Alas Prosper Daily will shortly be discontinued. Prosper told me that as of August 31 Prosper Daily will be no more. I reached out to David Kimball, the CEO of Prosper to get his reasoning behind this move.
He told me that the decision was based around focus. While the app was great it was not consistent with the core focus of their business. It was more of an ancillary service and Prosper has become laser focused on their core business this year. Existing users will be notified about a similar app, called Clarity Money, where they can transition and continue to track their finances.
Prosper has retained a few people on the Prosper Daily engineering team and this move will enable them to work on creating a better borrower and investor experience. Improving the web-enabled mobile experience is a key goal for that team now as mobile remains a central part of their development efforts. David didn’t rule out releasing another app at some point in the future but it would be different to the Prosper Daily app.