Stash To Build Banking App "For All Americans"

New York-based financial services platform Stash is launching a mobile banking service it says it hopes will empower millions of Americans to manage and simplify their day-to-day financial lives. The banking service, set to launch early 2018, will use proprietary data and develop personalized recommendations based on spending habits, to help its 1.2 million customers develop healthier financial habits.

It’s something of a new direction for a two-year-old startup that began as a low-cost investment platform whose sweet spot has been millennial investors with no market experience, and middle class incomes. Stash simplifies the process, offering investing with as little as $5.

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Stash's App

By offering banking services, it’s joining a host of fintech startups, participating in the gold rush of next generation mobile first-based banking services for Millennials, like Qapital, Moven, Bank Mobile, and Simple. Stash hopes to differentiate itself by offering a holistic approach to clients’ financial lives. With its goal-based savings features, clients can monitor their own expenses, while receiving guidance on where to save more, spend less, and how to invest for longer-term objectives with Stash Invest and Retire.

“As we revised the Stash Invest and Retire products, we learned more about what our clients need, and what they need is help,” says Brandon Krieg, chief executive and co-founder of Stash. “In addition to exorbitant bank fees, we realized incumbents do very little, to nothing at all, to help these people manage their money and plan for the long term.”

Trading veterans Krieg and co-founder Ed Robinson, had similar experiences with their friends and family. Those closest to them had no clue what to do in terms of investing and saving, and would constantly ask either Krieg or Robinson (their token finance friends) for advice.

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Stash's Cofounders Ed Robinson on left and Brandon Krieg

They both left Macquarie, a global financial services and investment bank in New York, and began digging into this commonality a bit more. After spending months talking to people on the streets of Manhattan about investing--they say they literally walked up and down the busy streets of the city and asked passersby two simple questions: Do you invest? If not, why not? They say they discovered three overriding themes: people felt investing was unaffordable, they couldn’t relate to it, and it was intimidating.

Krieg says they had a collective “Aha” moment, common to most entrepreneurs, when they discovered that most people didn’t know even the basics of investing. Armed with this information, Krieg and Robinson effectively decided to create a tech-enabled platform to fill accessibility and informational gaps by bringing access and education to new and underserved investors. And, Stash was born.

Their goal was to simplify the way customers think about their money, and to teach them how to develop long-term, intelligent financial habits.

Today, Stash offers a selection of over 40 curated ETFs, from investment companies that range from Black Rock to Vanguard, to build personalized portfolios that reflect personal investing interests and beliefs, as well as savings goals.

The approach has resonated with investors and venture capitalists alike, and Stash has been on something of a tear lately. This summer it reached 1 million investors on its platform, and in July 2017 Stash closed its round C, led by Coatue investors, for $40 million.