A start-up helping millennials to open their first investment portfolio is in talks with leading challenger banks.
Tickr, based in London and Liverpool, is in talks with challenger banks to integrate its feature into their apps.
Currently a standalone app, it is built by friends Matt Latham and Tom McGillycuddy, who wanted to make it easy for consumers to invest in meaningful businesses – known as ‘impact investment’.
Tickr allows users and first-time investors to invest in a portfolio of hundreds of global businesses attempting to solve the world’s most pressing problems.
Users can select a ‘theme’ which resonates with them – such as climate change, equality or disruptive technology – then select a risk level and begin investing from as little as £5.
“The challenger bank user is very much our target demographic,” McGillycuddy told BusinessCloud.
“As soon as you start explaining to millennials what the app does, they’re downloading it before you’ve finished!”
The start-up is now in talks with challenger banks to integrate the investment option into its platform, and expects to announce further details in Q3.
“The timing is being dictated by us, so we can make sure our tech is in a good position,” he said.
The 11-strong start-up recently hired a growth strategist from Ladder, the agency responsible for leading challenger bank Monzo’s growth strategy.
“He brings a lot of experience of working with Monzo for the past two or three years, to execute on a marketing strategy from a data-driven point of view at a time when the team is stronger and the app is much stronger,” he said.
McGillycuddy said the start-up is also planning a Seedrs crowdfunding round in April and international expansion in 2020, beginning with Nordic countries.
“They are very digitally savvy and even more sustainably minded than the UK,” he said. “The population is ripe for the product we’ve produced.”