Hyve’s money app targets Gen Z and young millennials by offering a way to pay off debt, save and invest with the help of friends and family. This social finance app is now publicly available after his year-long product testing with hundreds of beta his users.
Hyve is building a multiplayer fintech infrastructure for savings and investments where users can create a network of supporters. These people can automatically round up their purchases to match the user’s personal cash contributions. The more people join the “Hive”, the more users save to reach their goals.
Hyve co-founder and CEO Royi Markowitz said: Image credit: virtue
Social finance is by no means a new concept. Think Public.com, Frich Money, Braid, Follow, Shares, and more. But co-founder and CEO Royi Markowitz told TechCrunch that Hyve is a hybrid of Venmo and Acorns, and its infrastructure differentiates it from its competitors.
“Our core is the ledger, which is the movement of money within the platform,” said Markowitz. “Converting a single-player ledger to a hybrid 3D multiplayer ledger is extremely difficult, especially for companies with hundreds of line items on their ledger. , or the only place you can transfer $1,000 to your investment portfolio, make it part of your savings, and get there faster.”
Here’s how it works: After downloading the app and creating a profile, users link their bank accounts and set up automatic deposits. Then create your first goal and share it with your friends and family. Users can also discover and help others’ goals via Hyve’s social her feed.
Free app features include automatic round-up of purchases, one-click investments from savings accounts, and 2.10% APY on all savings account balances. There are also financial tools to help you get out of debt.
Hyve is still in its very early stages, pre-monetization, but through the beta program, users have averaged about 3 people creating a ‘hyve’ and creating savings goals that they want to reach over $850,000 in total. . Markowitz expects he will reach 100,000 active his users within the next year.
Future revenue plans include billing for creating “smart” goals, savings to pay student loans, fees to connect users to lenders, access to insights, and opportunities to refinance loans.
The company is consumer-focused, but Markowitz said the company recently secured its first employer. Under this model, employers pay Hyve a SaaS fee per employee.
The company has raised $2.25 million in a pre-seed round in January 2022 from a group of investors including The Flying Whale VC, MoreVC, and Guardio founders. We are currently in the process of raising another round of funding, which is expected to be completed later this year.
