Grifin, an investment app that simplifies investments by automatically purchasing stocks with brands that users shop regularly, announced on Wednesday it had secured a $101 million Series A funding round, bringing its funding to about $22 million.
In addition to the announcement, Grifin revealed it has exceeded 500,000 registered users. This shows that the approach to investment resonates with many users. Grifin also claims to have around 1 million app downloads and 100,000 monthly active users. The company refused to share the rating.
Investment and user growth marks important milestones for Griffin, reflecting investors' trust in the company's business model and their ability to disrupt traditional investment methods. For many Americans, the stock market can be intimidating. Only 62% of US adults reportedly own a direct stake.
The new capital will be invested in not only product development but also in building the company's software engineering and UX design team. Notable features include the AI chatbots Griffin is working on and family planning designed for parents who want to showcase their investments to young adult children.
Founded in 2017 by Aaron Froug, Bo Starr and Robin Froug, Grifin aims to simplify investments for difficult people. Initially, based on the concept of “stocks you shop for,” the company evolved into an adaptive investment model in 2024, in which in turn automatically invests one dollar from a user's trading into stocks related to purchases. For example, if a user is shopping at Walmart, one dollar will be invested in Walmart stocks. Users can also manually adjust their investment amount. As Griffin's internal data proves, this model has proven to be successful.
Image credits: Griffin
Another approach Grifin takes to simplify investments is to provide educational materials that provide users with daily insights into financial literacy. The company plans to expand its education offering, develop an AI chatbot that can summarise articles on the platform and provide quick answers to user questions. The chatbot also provides insight into individual accounts and answers questions such as, “When did you make this investment?” Or, “When did you receive the dividend?”
The timing of the rollout is currently unknown, as Griffin wants to ensure that the chatbot will provide accurate answers before its launch.
“AI can be a great feature, but sometimes it can't give you the right thing or it can't,” Grifin CEO Aaron Frough told TechCrunch. “So we're just making sure we're dotting to me and crossing the T before launching something like that.”
Educational provision is particularly important due to Griffin's user base. Many of its users are women in their late 40s to late 60s, traditionally a group with little confidence in their investment knowledge. There are also young female users between the ages of 18 and 24. This is why Grifin is considering adding budgeting tools that will provide insight into user spending.
One of the most requested features is family planning. This allows users to share their Grifin accounts with their families and introduce their investment to younger users. Many younger generations are hesitant to invest in the stock market. The market has improved over the past few months, but there are still risks.
“One cool thing we want to do with family planning is [allow] The parents or grandparents who fund the accounts of children and grandchildren are not that stressed financially,” added Aaron Furgue.
The round was led by Nava Ventures with participation from Alloy Labs, Draper Associates, Gaingels, Nevcaut Ventures and TTV Capital. In addition to the funding, Nava Ventures partner Freddie Martignetti joined Grifin's board of directors.