Founded in 2017, fintech startup Grifin has a unique solution when it comes to investing. It's about matching where you shop with where you invest.
Grifin automatically withdraws $1 from a user's checking account every time a user makes a purchase at a publicly traded company and automatically invests that dollar in the company on the user's behalf. For example, if a Grifin user goes to Starbucks and buys a cold beer, the Grifin app will withdraw $1 from him and give the user $1 of SBUX stock at the time of purchase.
The company on Thursday released a new adaptive investment model that makes the service more flexible, from the ability to pause automatic payments to the ability to disable investments in specific companies that users shop with. Users can now manually increase or decrease the amount they spend on their investments from $1 up to $99 per trade.
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Grifin co-founder Aaron says, “By investing as little as $1 at a time, people can learn how to navigate the world of investing without suffering huge negative consequences if they don't invest correctly.'' “It's about helping people.” Froug told TechCrunch.
Griffin was founded to democratize investing and help people understand their spending habits, Frog said. Having a positive relationship with money can be an “incredibly difficult thing to do and achieve,” he told the outlet.
Here's how it works
We tried out the Grifin app, which features a new adaptive investment model, and found the service easy to onboard and use.
Screenshot of the app. The first shows the steps required to create a Griffin account, the second highlights that the app will ask for personal information such as his SSN and home address, and the third highlights that the app will ask for the companies in which he invests. Here's how to identify it.
To create an account, you had to enter personally identifiable information such as your social security number and home address. I also had to connect my checking account to the app, as well as any other credit or debit cards I used, so that Griffin could track my transactions.
Although I wasn't thrilled about giving away all my personal information, becoming an investor was surprisingly easy. It took him less than 10 minutes to have everything connected and ready to use.
Within seconds, Griffin had already cleared four places I had shopped in the past week, the past two weeks, and the last month.
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The app has a simple layout and the adaptive investment model has increased my confidence as a user because if I don't want to invest in a particular company but want to buy something from that company, I can do that. The $1 per transaction investment model reshapes spending choices as the app focuses on investing time and money into your business rather than spending on consumption.
According to TechCrunch, Griffin is working on an app redesign and an AI chatbot.
As for me, I will continue to use this app. The financial risk is low enough that anyone can try it.
