Relationships are complicated; However, thanks to some fintech companies, combining the finances of these modern couples can be easy.
Plentya year-old company that helps couples discuss, manage and invest their money together, is the latest to launch its platform, focused on millennials who want access to wealth-building opportunities that take their relationship status into account .
Co-founders Emily Luk and Channing Allen met while working together at Even, which was acquired by One in 2022. They got engaged in late 2021 and came up with the idea for Plenty while looking for products to help them plan their finances. together, Luk told TechDigiPro.
Luk remembers finding options to grow wealth when you’re already rich, but when it came to people who weren’t in that category, he said the options were limited to products that didn’t have high upfront fees or provided potentially predatory advice.
After leaving One last year, they set out to build Plenty as an SEC-registered investment adviser with a goal-based investment approach. There are also automated forecasts so couples can plan milestones they want to achieve together, like paying off student debt, buying a house, or having a child.
Here’s how it works: The wealth building platform allows users to join as individuals or couples. Users connect their financial accounts and can then choose which accounts to share with their partner. There is also a cash management product: a money market fund-backed portfolio that currently offers a 4.83% APR. Plus, users get an AI-powered direct indexing strategy that Luk says has historically required a minimum investment of $500,000.
Plenty requires an initial deposit of $100 and charges an annual membership fee of $150 for individuals or $200 for a couple, with both people getting their own Plenty account.
View of goals in Plenty. Image Credits: Plenty
The company is currently in a crowded space that includes companies like Honeydue, Zeta, Ivella, and Ensemble, which is designed for divorced people who are co-parenting.
Luk said many of Plenty’s competitors tailor their offerings to “a much younger, less mature relationship” and are more focused on the budget and transaction division.
“Where we play is a focus on an average household making over $90,000 or even in the low $100,000 a year,” Luk said. “For most of these people, it’s thinking about why we have these really important life milestones. Buying a home or building for retirement requires more medium- and long-term planning, and is much more analogous to what financial planners might help someone rather than budgeting solutions on other platforms.”
Zeta, Ivella and Ensemble started in the last three years and Plenty joins them in attracting venture capital. The company today announced $2.75 million in seed capital from a group of investors including Phenomenal Ventures, Kevin Durant and Rich Kleiman’s 35V, former Wealthfront CEO Adam Nash, Xtripe Angels and Inovia Capital.
Much of the new capital will be used for recruitment and product development.
Much is still early, but it is already generating income. Luk and Allen have been using the product themselves since January and have a waiting list that is growing, though Luk declined to go into detail about how long it lasts. With the announcement of the increase, Plenty also announces its “early access” period for users.
Next, the goal is to launch some new savings offers, like Treasury bills, and help 1 million households add $1 million to their retirement.
“We still have a lot more to build before we get to that point,” Lux said. “It’s about getting more people into the product and thinking about some of the other goals that people have right now, like having a pet, freezing eggs, in vitro, and other things that are relevant to our generation.”
