Plum, an artificial intelligence (AI) chatbot for personal finance, completed its equity crowdfunding round on Seedrs and secured £923,255 in funds.
The company, which was launched in January 2017 by the former head of international at TransferWise, Victor Trokoudes, is said to be the first AI-powered Facebook chatbot that helps consumers manage their personal finances. It has already undertaken the task of helping people save money in a way that they barely notice by connecting securely to users bank accounts through Facebook messenger. Plum explained that it links to customers’ banking accountings, analyzes their activity, and helps them manage their money across three pillars:
- Saving: Plum’s smart algorithm, driven by AI, identifies opportunities to save small amounts of money which it moves directly into new Plum savings accounts.
- Return: Plum has partnered with RateSetter and built a seamless experience for investing customer’s Plum savings, averaging a 3% return. Plum intends to offer a broader variety of investments: from higher-risk investment-interest options to themed-based ETF portfolios.
- Don’t get ripped off: Plum aims to ensure customers are not overpaying on their bills by suggesting cheaper alternatives. Starting with utility bills, we intend to quickly expand to cover additional products.
The company’s latest funding round was being led by a solid group of prominent investors so retail types may participate alongside professional investors. The fintech company revealed 500 Startups, Apostolos Apostolakis alongside existing investors Demetrios Zoppos the founder of OneFineStay, Ian Thomas the founder of Lendinvest and other Angels in the Fintech space have funded the company. Trokoudes recently stated:
“I saw how TransferWise reduced the friction for sending money globally and provided consumers with a cheaper, superior product. When I left TransferWise in 2016 I felt all Fintech verticals were disrupted and that the natural next real Fintech innovation was to unify these disruptions into one complete offering which is where Plum comes in. There’s been lots of talk about the personal savings glut in the UK, confirmed by troubling stats. Deloitte estimated the savings gap will reach £350 billion by 2050. It’s a huge problem. We help Plum users to microsave on average £150 a month in a way they barely notice.”
All funds will be used to continue Plum’s growth and product expansion.
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