Six-figure crowdfund to drive European growth at fintech firm Plum

Money management chatbot Plum has embarked on a new crowdfunding drive to raise just over £850k.

The company set up a campaign on Seedrs to support the launch a new mobile app and accelerate growth in European markets.

The crowdfund is Plum’s second through Seedrs; last July, it raised close to £1m from just under 1,000 investors.

Since then, the Islington-based firm has grown its customer base from 22,000 users to 130,000 and doubled its workforce.

Plum is an AI-powered personal money assistant that aims to help consumers save money without fees or changes to their spending, switching or investing habits. It does this by connecting with a user’s current accounts, analysing spending patterns and setting aside an appropriate amount of money every few days.

The company recently launched Plum Investments, a theme-based product that lets users invest their savings based on themes, rather than via the traditional risk appetite model. Tech, emerging markets and ethical companies are the three themes currently available, although Plum intends to add AI, nutrition, robotics and others in the coming months.

Plum was founded in January 2017. The firm is backed by OneFineStay co-founder Demetrios Zoppos and early stage venture fund 500 Startups.

Victor Trokoudes, Plum’s CEO and co-founder, said: “Since the beginning, Plum has been driven by a very clear mission; make people better off, and that to us means making people have more money than they used to.

“The development of Plum Investments is a step closer to completing our mission. By making investments available and engaging for everyone, people can take the first step to start investing and not feel this is something reserved for the rich, whilst also start growing their savings responsibly.”

He continued: “We are delighted to be returning to Seedrs. We had a brilliant reception from investors last year, which helped fuel our exciting growth over the last 12 months, so we look forward to welcoming them all back again and will hopefully bring on some new investors to take us to the next stage of our mission.”

Demitris Zoppos commented: “Plum Investments is a game changing product in retail investing; it will open up the stock markets to all retail investors – not just the ones who have traditionally been able to afford it.

“It also comes at a time when interest earned on savings in cash are the lowest levels seen in twenty years. This focus on financial inclusion and education is one of the key things that attracted me to Plum in the first instance.”

He continued: “I have been delighted with the team since my initial investment, and I see a huge demand in the market for their product as evidenced by the impressive user growth over the past 12 months. I very much look forward to what they are going to do next.”