In a press release announcing the news, the startup said the VC seed funding will be used for the full-scale rollout of the Worthy Financial mobile app, enabling Worthy to expand its growing user base as well as to broaden the array of investment product options it offers retail investors.
“We are witnessing a dramatic sea change in financial services. Hi-tech advisory solutions are displacing conventional intermediaries, and we are in the early stages of experiencing a significant capital shift in asset classes,” says Sally Outlaw, CEO of Worthy, in the press release. “The once thriving retail brokerage industry is on the verge of being obsoleted by technology, as a new generation of millennial investors increasingly look to robo-advisors, marketplace lending and equity crowdfunding platforms for investment alternatives. Worthy is one of those alternatives that provides an attractive yield while better aligning those returns with the investor’s values and lifestyle.”
Worthy provides users with the ability to spend their way to retirement by investing retail round-ups into high-yielding, fixed interest bonds, the proceeds of which fund growing businesses. In doing so, anyone has the capability to build a nest egg, enhance portfolio returns, mitigate risk and generate both social as well as financial returns, the company said in its press release. Worthy investors grow their portfolios while simultaneously supporting American entrepreneurs.
“The problem is most Americans mistakenly believe that they lack the capital necessary to start saving or investing. Worthy addresses this staggering yet underserved market by ensuring that anyone who purchases goods or services can be well on their way to building an investment portfolio,” added Outlaw in the same release.
Outlaw noted the startup’s beta testing shows people want yield and that users purchase peer structure noted at twice the rate of investors from other sources.