Plum pulls in $4.5m in funding, after 433% increase in user base over past year

Personal finance management chatbot Plum has received $4.5m in new financing, on the back of a 433 per cent user growth over the past year.

The capital injection was led by venture capital firm VentureFriends and the EBRD (European Bank for Reconstruction and development). With this batch of funding, the WealthTech has raised a total of $6.3m in funds.

Having closed this investment, Plum has already expanded its engineering teams in London and Athens and is continuing to develop its multi-platform strategy. Proceeds have also been earmarked for expansion in new markets.

As of today, the chatbot will be available as a free download on iOS devices and will be launched on Androids in the coming months. Plum claims to be the first UK-based company to offer both iOS and Messenger, which will let consumers choose the most convenient way to interact with customers.

Plum uses AI and behavioural economics to help consumers better manage their money, improve savings and make smarter finance decisions. The chatbot mixes savings, and investments and can also identify where a user is spending too much on deals or under-performing products.

Last October, the chatbot platform released a theme-based investment product which lets users have greater control on what the invest in, including technology, emerging markets and ethical companies. In support of this, the company recently launched ‘Splitter’.

Through Splitter, consumers can continuously invest and split their automatic savings between saving and investments – this split can be anywhere from 0 – 100 per cent.

Plum CEO and co-founder Victor Trokoudes said, “We’re making an irreversible change in finance, putting consumers firmly back in charge of their own money. While the traditional banking system remains geared towards keeping people in debt, Plum empowers users to easily stay on top of their finances – helping them spend less, save more, switch out of overpriced deals, and invest better than they have before.”

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