Plum, the latest fintech startup looking to help the millennial generation manage their money and encourage savings, has raised £0.5 million in seed funding ahead of an invite-only launch at the end October.
Developed by Victor Trokoudes and Alex Michael, part of the early teams at TransferWise and Tictail, Plum connects to a user's bank accounts to analyse daily spending and puts aside spare funds in an interest-bearing savings account. Users can talk with the Plum on Facebook Messenger, ask it to save more money or withdraw money from their savings instantly back to their current account.
The service is currently undergoing a few hundred trials in private Beta in the UK and will be invite-only at the end of October.
“Ultimately, our aim is to enable every person in the UK to put money aside, whether that’s just enough for a rainy day, or for something substantial like a house deposit," says Trokoudes. "We know that a lot of people, particularly millennials, feel either that they cannot commit to saving a specific amount, or are not motivated to do so, so we want to do it for them.”
Plum's arrival follows hard on the heels of Chip, an app development startup operating out of London's Level39, which provides an equivalent chatbot-powered service.