Moneybox's App Turns Payment Change into Investments

U.K.-based startup called Moneybox has launched a microinvesting app to encourage the millennial generation to invest the change that results from payments.

The “digital piggybank” gives users the option of rounding up a purchase to the nearest pound and setting aside the difference to invest in major corporations like Apple, Facebook, Netflix and Disney through three tracker funds depending on the user's confidence level – cautious, balanced or adventurous. Users must link to an online bank account from the app and can also schedule weekly deposits and make one-off payments into their Moneybox account.

Other companies have also used investments as an incentive to adopt payments technology. Stockpile, for example, gave gift card purchasers the option of investing in publicly traded companies as part of its program.

Moneybox is part of the Innovation Hub program of the Financial Conduct Authority, the U.K.’s financial regulatory. Its closed £3.4 million in pre-launch funding in July.

Testing from the app’s beta version, which was made available earlier this summer, shows users make about 30 payments a week with an average round up amount of 28p (or £8.40 per week and £440 per year) from spare change, according to EU Pulse, who first reported the story.