Phroogal, an Elizabeth, N.J., startup aiming to harnessthe collective knowledge of the crowd to share financialinformation and promote social collaboration, announced this weekthat it has successfully met its 30-day Indiegogo crowd-fundingcampaign.

The company raised $78,501 of its $75,000 goal, making it thefirst financial literacy startup funded by the crowd, claimedJason Vitug, founder and CEO of Phroogal.

“Phroogal is crowd-sourced financial information enabling socialcollaboration to share knowledge, discover new tools and connectwith money-savvy peers and financial experts,” Vitug said. “ThinkGoogle, Quora and Yelp on personal finance.”

The company, which plans to launch the beta version of itswebsite later this year, will make it easier for credit unionmembers, potential members and other consumers to share knowledge,discover new tools and connect with money-savvy peers and financialexperts, said Vitug.

He previously served as vicepresident of membership development at the former Tyco FederalCredit Union (now named Reach FCU with $100 million in assets) inMenlo Park, Calif., and as a member experience officer at the $2.2billion Affinity FederalCredit Union in Basking Ridge, New Jersey, according to hisLinkedIn profile.

“Money is a taboo subject so we rely on informal conversationsand the Internet to find answers to our financial questions,” hesaid. “The abundance of information and the ineffective wayit's currently structured leaves many to guess what's trustworthyand relevant. Phroogal will solve that by indexing, aggregating andallowing peer review of financial resources.”

Phroogal also plans to collaborate with credit unions in otherways, the company said.

“Credit unions need to have members spend more time on theirwebsite instead of using search engines to find answers to theirfinancial questions,” Vitug said. “We will provide the Phroogalsearch engine and Q&A platform that can be integrated/embeddedinto a credit union's website.

“One of the benefits is to allow members to ask questions andcollaborate with other members and get answers from credit unionstaff. A second benefit is the ability to find information onfinancial topics on vetted government and not-for-profit websites.As we plan to be the place for all things money, we want creditunions to be the place for all things money for their members.Finally, we will share data on trending topics and high-profilequestions.”

Phroogal will focus on financial literacy in a unique way, Vitugsaid.

“There are government agencies, for profit companies,not-for-profit organizations and technology startups creatingprograms to solve financial illiteracy,” he explained. “However,none integrate the technological and natural way people learn aboutmoney – through search engines and social interaction.”

Phroogal will also offer a way for credit union members to makereferrals, he said.

“People listen to referrals, but directly asking isn't easy,” hesaid. “Phroogal plans to change all that by making it easier forpeople to share information and referrals online.”