{"id":42572,"date":"2023-10-20T15:22:11","date_gmt":"2023-10-20T15:22:11","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/startupsmart.test\/2023\/10\/20\/how-global-startup-giant-acorns-secured-100000-aussie-users-in-just-six-months-startupsmart\/"},"modified":"2023-10-20T15:22:11","modified_gmt":"2023-10-20T15:22:11","slug":"how-global-startup-giant-acorns-secured-100000-aussie-users-in-just-six-months-startupsmart","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.startupsmart.com.au\/uncategorized\/how-global-startup-giant-acorns-secured-100000-aussie-users-in-just-six-months-startupsmart\/","title":{"rendered":"How global startup giant Acorns secured 100,000 Aussie users in just six months &#8211; StartupSmart"},"content":{"rendered":"<div class=\"td-post-featured-image\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"640\" height=\"332\" itemprop=\"image\" class=\"entry-thumb\" src=\"\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/03\/George-Lucas-ACORNS-HEADSHOT-640x332.jpg\" alt=\"fintech app to help people save money Acorns Australia managing director George Lucas\" title=\"George Lucas ACORNS HEADSHOT\"><\/div>\n<p>US fintech giant Acorns has attracted more than 100,000 users in Australia after launching locally in February.<\/p>\n<p>After just three weeks the micro-investing platform had <a href=\"\/advice\/business-planning\/how-this-global-fintech-giant-has-attracted-50000-users-in-three-weeks\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">already racked up 50,000 users<\/a>, and Acorns Australia managing director George Lucas says this continual growth as been in part thanks to interest from young Australians.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIt\u2019s obviously resonating with millenials in ways that we didn\u2019t expect,\u201d Lucas tells <em>StartupSmart.<\/em><\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe just see our ratings going up.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>Acorns achieved global fame after actor-turned-tech investor Ashton Kutcher bought a significant stake in Acorns Grow. The&nbsp;Acorns app was then brought to Australia through a joint venture with Instreet Investment Limitd.<\/p>\n<p>According to Acorns Australia, more than 95% of users are seeing a positive return on investment and personal financial gains before the monthly maintenance fee.<\/p>\n<p>These fees are set at $1.25 per month for balances under $5000 or 0.275% a year for accounts over this.<\/p>\n<p>\u201c98.5% of users are engaged with the app on a weekly basis and the average [account] balance is about $500,&#8221; Lucas says.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cEveryone has a different return portfolio.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>The uptake of the app is expected to continue, and Lucas says he is hoping to hit 300,000 users by June next year.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe still continue to listen to the consumers for new features, we\u2019re going to bring out BPAY so they can add voluntary contributions to their superfund,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n<p>His best advice to buddying fintech startups is to make a hefty investment in jumping the various regulatory hurdles.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cFor a fintech startup, you have to budget a lot more for regulatory compliance,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cAnd you really have to think about spending the same amount on tech development on it.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>To ensure the Acorns app continues to create a positive user experience, Lucas says his team has&nbsp;built in a robust tech infrastructure to quickly fix bugs, identify crashes and respond effectively when these happen to minimise impact on customers.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe have lots of software constantly running,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe\u2019re finding the one in 100,000 bugs now rather than the one in 1000.\u201d<\/p>\n<p><em>Follow StartupSmart on&nbsp;<\/em><em>Facebook,<\/em>&nbsp;<em>Twitter,&nbsp;<\/em><em>LinkedIn&nbsp;<\/em><em>and&nbsp;<\/em><em>SoundCloud.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>US fintech giant Acorns has attracted more than 100,000 users in Australia after launching locally in February. After just three<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":60253,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[14,1],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.startupsmart.com.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/42572"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.startupsmart.com.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.startupsmart.com.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.startupsmart.com.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.startupsmart.com.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=42572"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.startupsmart.com.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/42572\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.startupsmart.com.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/60253"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.startupsmart.com.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=42572"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.startupsmart.com.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=42572"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.startupsmart.com.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=42572"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}