Grifin raises USD 11 million in Series A founding round

The founding round was led by Nava Ventures with participation from Alloy Labs, Draper Associates, Gaingels, Nevcaut Ventures, and TTV Capital.

Educational and AI tools for Grifin’s customers

The funding will be utilised for building out Grifin’s software engineering and UX design teams, as well as for product development. Upcoming features of the app include an AI chatbot and family plans created for parents who want to introduce their young adult children to investing.

The company aims to simplify investment for its users. Last year, Grifin evolved into an adaptive investing model that invests USD 1 from users’ transactions automatically into stocks related to their purchase. For instance, once a user purchases from Walmart, they automatically invest in the store’s stocks. They can also adjust their investment amounts manually. Grifin’s internal data proved that the model worked, with a 234% increase in spending at Walmart six months after users bought its stock.

To further simplify investing, Giffin offers educational material, providing daily insights into financial literacy. This is sought after by the company’s clients, as the majority of them are women between their late 40s and 60s, a group of individuals who traditionally have less confidence in their investing knowledge. There are also younger women users aged 18 to 24, which could be why Grifin is considering adding budgeting tools that give users insights into their spending.

The educational offerings are set to be expanded with the help of an AI chatbot that can summarise articles on the platform and provide fast answers to users’ questions. The bot will also offer insights into accounts, being able to answer questions about when a user received a dividend or when they made an investment. The rollout timing was not revealed by the company representatives.