Verve Super said the app, Verve Money, is tailor designed around the needs and desires of women investors.
The super fund cited the ASX Australian Investor Study 2023, which found men make up 58 per cent of Australians that invest outside of super and their primary residence, while also owning larger portfolios – $667,000 for men compared with $413,000 for women. Additionally, 31 per cent of women have portfolios of less than $50,000, while the same is true for only 21 per cent of men.
Verve added it aims to capitalise on the growing trend of new investors increasingly being women.
“It’s understandable that women don’t invest at the same rate as men. Historically, women haven’t been invited into conversations about investing, it hasn’t felt like a space for us, and when you look at the products in market, they don’t meet the needs of many women looking to invest for the first time,” Verve Money co-founder and chief executive Christina Hobbs said.
“Launching an investment app is a logical next step for us. Virtually, every day, women were asking us when they could invest with Verve outside of super, so we knew there was huge demand.
“We were passionate about building a thoughtful investing platform that solved the problems of underserved women investors and allowed us to truly partner with women along their wealth-building journey.”
According to Verve’s own research, which included surveying and interviewing over 500 women, it found the motivations for building wealth are different than for men, while also having a lower tolerance for risk and greater desire for ethical investments.
The super fund said Verve Money will ensure every investment option available is ethically screened, including a minimum 20 per cent of each portfolio invested in climate solutions. It also includes access to non-listed investments to increase diversification.
“Women investors overwhelmingly told us that they didn’t want to choose the one ‘ethically labelled’ option from other apps, rather they wanted their money invested with people whose values they could fully trust knowing that every investment offered is ethical, that they had choice from a range of ethical options to select that one that suits them best, and they wanted to know that their money truly can be used to drive a positive future,” Ms Hobbs continued.
According to Verve, almost 90 per cent of Verve Money members who have been trialling and testing the app are women, with just over 10 per cent of investors identifying as men or non-binary.
“We’ve really proved the saying that if you build a great product and service for an underserved community, then you often just build a great product for everyone,” Ms Hobbs said.
“We’ve created an app that has 100 per cent ethical investments, that supports people to invest in line with their goals, and that is super simple to use but sophisticated behind the scenes – and that seems to appeal to underserved women investors but also a broader community including men and non-binary investors who are looking for this service and couldn’t find it in market.”
Verve Money offers an automated investing option that allows investors to choose an amount they want to invest at a regular interval, such as monthly, split that amount across their goals, and track progress in real-time using the app.
Verve added the app is free to download and does not charge account fees for balances under $1,000 to prevent small balances from being eroded by fees.
How is this “pitch” not considered entirely sexist and potentially demeaning, as opposed to simply saying you are providing a platform of 100% ethical investments (even this claim is likely to be highly subjective). Investing well is never predicated on what gender you are…