Montreal-based financial technology startup Mylo Financial Technologies Inc. has closed $2 million of seed funding for its app that encourages users to round up their purchases and invest the spare change.
The funding, which includes participation by Montreal-based Desjardins Capital, will be used to scale up Mylo’s operations and develop backend technology for the personal financial management platform, the company says in a news release.
Mylo hopes the technology will make it easier for Canadians to incorporate savings and investing into their daily habits, and is particularly promoting its product to millennials, a demographic typically underserved in the wealth management industry.
When using the app, users create an investment goal during the sign up process, such as a down payment for a house or a vacation. Users can then start investing with less than $1 by automatically allocating spare change into a personalized, diversified portfolio of ETFs.
Users can also speed up their savings by making one-time deposits into their Mylo account called “Boosts” and invested funds can be withdrawn from a user’s account at any time.
“Mylo is making investing easy for all Canadians, regardless of the size of their paycheque or the amount they can afford to set aside, and we’re invested in the idea that everyone can and should be saving for their goals,” says Jacques Perreault, associate vice president of technological innovations at Desjardins Capital, in a statement.
Since its launch in July 2017, Mylo has helped Canadians save and invest over $1 million by rounding up over 1.6 million daily purchases, the company says.