The Hive Money app is targeting Gen Z and younger millennials as a way to pay off debt, save and invest with the help of friends and family. The social finance app is open to the public after a year of testing the product with hundreds of beta users.
Hive is a multiplayer fintech infrastructure where users create a network of supporters to save and invest, and those people can automatically pool their purchases to match the user’s personal financial contributions. The more people add to the Hive, the more money the user can save to achieve their goals.
Roy Markowitz, Co-Founder and CEO, Hive. Image Credits: Virtue
Social finance is by no means a new concept, think Public.com, Free Money, Braid, Follow and Shares. However, Roy Markowitz, co-founder and CEO told TechCrunch that Hive is a hybrid between Venmo and Acorns, and what differentiates itself from competitors is its infrastructure.
“It’s our main book, which is the financial activities in the platform,” said Markowitz. “Converting a single-player book into a hybrid 3D multiplayer book is very, very difficult, especially for a company with hundreds of line items on the books. Hive is actually the only place I can use my credit card to send $1 or $20 or $1,000 to your investment portfolio and get it as part of your savings.
Here’s how it works: After downloading the app and creating a profile, users link their bank accounts to set up automatic deposits. Then they create their first goal and share that with friends and family. Users can also find and support other people’s goals through Hive’s social feeds.
Features of the free app include automatic aggregation of purchases, one-click withdrawal from savings account and 2.10% API on all savings account balances. There are also financial tools that can help you get rid of debt.
Hive is pre-revenue and still in its early stages, but in its beta program, users have created an average of three “hives” and savings goals totaling more than $850,000. Markowitz expects to reach 100,000 active users next year.
Future income planning includes paying to create “smart” goals, saving for paying off student loans, paying to connect users with lenders, gaining insight and credit rehabilitation opportunities.
Although it’s focused on consumers, Markowitz said the company recently added 300 new clients to the nearly 1,000 people on its waiting list — its first employer — which it declined to name. In this model, employers pay a SaaS fee for each employee Hive.
The company has raised $2.25 million in a pre-seed round in January 2022 from an investor group that includes The Flying Whale VC, MoreVC and Guardio founders. It is currently raising another round of funding, which is expected to close later this year.
