In an era of rising inflation and soaring living costs, people around the globe are increasingly looking for ways to save money on their daily expenses. Luckily, many startups are developing solutions to tackle this very problem and help people better manage their personal finances.
These companies are using technologies such as AI and ML and tap into behavioral and data science to provide affordable alternatives to traditional services, and help consumers stretch their money further.
In this article, we’ll explore some of the startups that can help you save money and live more frugally. From apps that help you build better financial habits, pay off your debts, and eliminate unnecessary expenses, these startups are looking to change the game of personal finance.
Our list is ever-expanding so please feel free to reach us and drop some suggestions at [email protected]
Name: Plum
Country: UK/Greece
What they do: Plum is a smart application that employs artificial intelligence to assist its users in managing their finances. Greek entrepreneur and Harvard economics graduate Victor Troukoudes established the company in 2017.
Plum’s application analyzes the bank transactions of its users and advises them on the amount they can save or invest each month. With its AI-based saving and investment tools, which streamline the process of constructing and diversifying their clients’ portfolio, Plum has enabled its customers to save and invest a total of £1.2 billion.
Name: Patron
Country: Czech Republic
What they do: Patron is an app with advanced AI and ML solutions that are able to detect the unnecessarily high costs on a client’s bank account and offers him the best solution.
Founded in 2020, the startup has the goal of making financial management stress-free and streamlined, and has more than 40 thousand users so far.
Name: Digit
Country: United States
What they do: Digit is a personalized savings app that automates day-to-day work of managing all personal finances including banking, saving, budgeting, investing, and retirement.
Launched in 2015, the app uses machine learning to analyze their clients’ linked bank account each day, accesses their spending habits and balance, and then automatically withdraws money that they can save and deposits it in their Digit savings or retirement account. According to the company, the app has helped members save over $7 billion to date.
Name: Qapital
Country: Sweden/United States
What they do: Qapital is an app designed to support individuals and couples as they save, invest, and spend by integrating financial planning into their day-to-day lives.
The app combines behavioral science and the power of automation and allows users to set saving goals and use Qapital’s savings rules to turn almost any activity such as making purchases or writing social media posts, into a savings trigger to automatically save money.
The app has over two million members, and has so far helped them to save over $3 billion collectively.
Name: Long Game
Country: United States
What they do: Long Game is a gamified finance mobile app that aims to help people save, learn and engage with their finances. The startup looks to increase bank customer engagement by using casual gaming to motivate smart financial behaviors and better financial habits. The app also features financial literacy games through which players can earn prizes and so-called “Coins” for learning about finance.
Long Game’s products are built around prize-linked savings, a concept of someone placing money in a savings vehicle for a chance to win money. Founded in 2015, last year Long Game was acquired by Truist, the sixth largest bank in the US.
Name: Qoins
Country: United States
What they do: Qoins is an automated micro-payment platform that helps peopleuse their spare change and pay off their debts faster. The app requires users to link accounts they use to make purchases and then rounds up to the nearest dollar and deposits this difference in their account on the app.
According to the company, while there are many apps focused on building wealth, there are only a few solutions that help tackle debt and build healthy financial habits, and this is one of Qoins main goals. Founded in 2016, the app has so far helped its clients pay off over $30M of debt.
Name: Mint
Country: United States
What they do: Mint is an app that helps their users with organizing and monitoring their accounts in one place. Users can connect all of their different bank and credit card accounts, in addition to any loans and investments that they also have.
The app then also helps users track their expenses and places them in budget categories. Users can also set limits for these categories, and the app lets them know if they are approaching those limits. Mint also helps its users pay down debt and save money by providing insights into their financial habits.
Name: Acorns
Country: United States
What they do: Acorns is a micro investing platform which allows customers to roundup spare change from everyday purchases and invest these sub-dollar amounts into a professionally managed portfolio of index funds.
Users can connect any credit or debit card and a checking account to the platform and then spend money like they normally do and watch your portfolio grow with the market. The app also allows its users to invest any amount, any time with no commissions or minimums.
Founded in 2012, last year the app raised $300M in a Series F funding round that brought a $2bn valuation for the company.
Name: Pluto Money
Country: United States
What they do: Billed as the mobile banking app for Generation Z, Pluto Money combines behavioral economics with AI to guide Gen Zs towards their financial goals starting in college and beyond. The app analyzes their users’ finances to create a personalized, gamified financial plan consisting of various money-saving challenges.
Founded in 2016, Pluto Money also enables its users to anonymously compare their finances against their peers, and also allows them to easily transfer savings into the app and provides tips and hacks for building better financial habits.
Name: Earny
Country: United States
What they do: Earny is a personal assistant that automatically gets money back for its users on almost every purchase they make. The app is taking advantage of the price protection benefit that is offered by the major credit card issuers and e-commerce stores.
The app automatically tracks its users online purchases, finds better prices and files the claims on their behalf. Founded in 2015 and with a total funding of $11.5M so far, Earny aims to further expand into verticals such as hospitality and car rentals.
The company is also working on new products such as live-chat and voice-driven bots, as well as prototyping a ML service for optimizing refunds and implementing a real-time-streaming platform for inter-bot messaging.
Name: Current
Country: United States
What they do: Current is a fintech company that is offering its users an annual percentage yield of 4.00% on up to $6K worth of savings, which surpasses the interest rates offered by many traditional banks.
Founded in 2015, the Current app provides an entirely online banking service, offering several products in addition to various budgeting tools, such as automating savings through round-ups. Its main products are the bank accounts and savings pods that earn a 4% APY and can hold up to $2K.
