DUBLIN: Irish fintech start-up Rubicoin has successfully secured a further €1.4 million in a new funding round to take its total amount raised to date to more than €5 million. The company, whose backers include Enterprise Ireland and American investment advice group the Motley Fool, was co-founded by Emmet Savage and John Tyrrell in 2013. The Dublin-based firm, which raised $2.2 million (€2.05 million) when it launched its flagship Invest app in the US in late 2015, secured an additional €1.2 million last year. It also operates in Canada and is to launch shortly in Australia. Speaking to The Irish Times, the company founders said the latest funding round, which includes investment from new and existing investors, is still open but will likely close soon. “Since December we’ve raised €1.4 million based on some very successful metrics that show we have grown the business through every lens possible. The round is still ongoing and we have a few more possible investors that are close,” said Savage.
Invest, which has been ranked as the number one investment app in Apple’s US AppStore for the past year, is an app for IoS and Android that makes it easy for people to start investing from their smartphones by giving straightforward instructions on how to buy shares and clear choices on what shares to buy. The company also has a second app called Learn, that helps wannabe investors understand the stock market. “We don’t advise what shares people should buy. What we do is handpick a tiny percentage of the 7,000 listed businesses in the US based on a methodology that has proven over time to outperform the S&P500 by about 25 per cent,” said Savage. Rubicoin last month surpassed the half-million user mark, of which 20 per cent are monthly active users. Their premium subscription service, which costs €6.99 per month, provides access to additional stocks.“We’ve seen a five-fold increase in engaged users since January and there were 70,000 new users for the Learn app last month alone,” said Savage.
