July 08, 2021

The fintech market has set another level of benchmarks by leveraging modern technology. This has set high goals for every sub-category industry functioning under fintech. The investment and trading industry is also on its uphill journey, demanding more improvement and swiftness.

Well, on-demand app development solutions help in solving the purpose. Acorns, Robinhood, Mint, are popular investment applications making the buzz by adopting the latest fintech trends and flowing with the wave. The disruption brought in by money investing apps has changed the traditional ways in which the finance and banking industry used to operate. If you are planning to opt for investment app development, you should go through this guide. This blog is inspired by Acorns (an industry-leading investment app) and would help entrepreneurs make apps like Acorns. Ready to give a strong competition?

Brokers traditionally initiated money trading. The brokers' role was to keep an eagle eye on the stock market and guide traders with investment strategies. However, the process has been highly simplified with the advent of investment apps like Acorns. The money investment applications aid people in exploring the full potential of the stock market, using which they can make money. Startups and Enterprises, therefore, consider the idea of developing an investment app like Acorns a cash-cow.

If we look at the statistics, Acorns had 8.2 million customers and expects to earn $126 million this year (2021). It is literally killing in the market and inspiring entrepreneurs to develop a stock market social app like Public.

So, what is the Acorns app? What is the ga-ga all about?

Acorns is an American-based financial service founded in 2012 & based in Irvine, California. It is a maestro app helping people in micro-investing and Robo-investing. Registered users can review a stock's portfolio and invest money automatically. Users can pick up any amount to invest in the diversified portfolio of exchange-traded funds.

The Acorns app also offers expert asset managers with Vanguard and BlackRock. The application has grabbed an average of 4,852,667 visitors per month. Acorns have raised nearly $105 million toward a Series E round of funding. The impressive figures are what people are Ga-Ga all about.

Acorns is a one-stop-shop for users to manage their personal finances. A user is free to open an account without a deposit; however, a firm needs a minimum deposit of $5 to start investing.

So yeah, this is the basic idea of the Acorns application. Now let's look into the business model for Acorns.

The business model of Acorns app:

As described above, the Acorns app earns from the customer fees it charges for initiating an investment. However, it also assists users in earning money from referrals and pocket commissions.

How do Acorns work?

There are various types of investing accounts a user can create using the Acorns app.

- Individual taxable account;

- Traditional IRA;

- Roth IRA;

- SEP IRA;

- Custodial account;

Users can open accounts quite easily with the Acorns app. All they need to do is, enter an email address and set a password for registration on the app. The registration form collects some personal and banking information to set up. This is important because it checks the employment status and risk status of the user. The application performs the entire verification process before allowing the user to trade using the app.

Users need to connect debit/credit cards to initiate transactions, and the money is saved within the account of the app. The application allows users to set up a monthly or daily amount and even include referrals and cashback.

Once the details are filled in, the Robo-advisor will suggest a certain portfolio allocation to the customer. At this stage, the forecast of the user's contribution to the app is all set by the application.

What are the features to include in investment mobile app development like Acorns?

Customer's screen:

Registration & Login : Design a simple registration form that helps in user verification and email confirmation. Collect relevant information required for you to allow users to trade in stock using the app.

Instructions : This section should be brainstormed right during the prototyping phase. You should design a section that acknowledges the customers about various functions and features of the app. It also instructs them with various steps required to invest using the app.

Firm details : Allow users to check the details of the firm before investment.

Check portfolio : The user should be free to check the portfolio of every firm they are interested in.

Credit and debit card link : Allow users to link their credit card or a debit card to start investing. There should be no limitation to the number of cards; however, it should be verified before the investment is initiated.

Calculate for the future years : This feature will assist users in calculating the investment and the earning for the years to come.

Account details and reviews : Users should be able to check the daily, monthly, or yearly investments they have made using the app. They should be allowed to review what amount is deducted from their account and at what intervals.

Money management tools : Allow users to use tools to keep track of their expenses and investments. These tools can help them check the daily amount of transactions by date and time.

Push notifications : Push notifications update the users about the stock price or changes in interest in real-time.

A personalized financial planner : Allocate a section in the app from where users can take required financial advice. This feature will help the users in managing their finances and earn profits.

Transfer/Withdraw money anytime : This feature will assist users in investing and withdrawing money from the app account as and when they want.

Latest news and information : This is the section where users can find every nitty-gritty detail of the stock and investment. The news section feature will share all the latest information that can be helpful for the users in deciding their investment.

Profile management : Allow the users to manage the entered profile information like phone number, profile image, etc.

Customer support & help : Help customers in solving their queries instantly.

Dashboard : An admin should be able to see the total number of users, revenue, and daily registration, etc.

User management : Admin should be able to manage all the registered users, allow them to access the app. Admin should be able to add/delete/edit users and make changes accordingly.

Payment management : Admin should be able to see all the transactions performed using the application.

Push notifications management : Admin is responsible for sending notifications to users about a stock price change, firm information, or related activities.

Customer support management : Admin can connect with the users directly and help them solve their queries.

What is the right tech stack requirement for developing an investment app?

You can hire mobile app developers or an app development company that can help you with the process. They should have a thorough knowledge of the advanced technologies and help you decide the same.

Our recommendation for selecting the tech stack for investment app development project is,

iOS

Programming language: Swift

Networking: Alamofire

Android

Programming language: Kotlin

Networking: OkHttp 3

Back-end

Programming language: Node.js

Framework: Express 4

Database: MySQL

API: Swagger

Tools

Signup: Amazon SES, Amazon SNS

Payment: Braintree

Push notifications: FCM

Storage: Amazon S3

What is the estimated time and cost of investment app development like Acorns?

If we were to give you an estimate, the expected cost of investment app development would be around $25K. However, this may vary depending on the advanced features you integrate, or the complexity of the app or the location of the app development company, or the UI/UX design. All these factors contribute to cost variation, and hence it is difficult to give an accurate figure without knowing the application's goal and your feature expectations.

For developing an investment app, you will need a team of:

- Business analyst;

- UI/UX designer;

- Backend developer;

- Frontend developer;

- Quality tester;

- Marketer;

Parting Words:

Acorns app is so far the best investment app in the industry, and to give strong competition; you need to brainstorm a solid app idea without worrying about the investment app development cost. Leave that worry to us. For any further questions, Kody Technolab has the answers. We will wait for your call!

Worried about investment app development planning?

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

blog author - kodytechnolab

Shreya Oza

Content Strategist

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