Plum will soon launch a new customer-focused crowdfunding campaign

By Joy Dumasia

Plum, Europe’s money management app, will soon be offering customers a stake in the company as it launches a new customer-focused crowdfunding campaign. The company aims for its valuation to triple through a combination of crowdfunding and a raise via institutional investors.

Plum has raised $19.3m to date, with the last funding round in July 2020 with major investors Global Brain, the EBRD and Venture Friends. Plum, which LendInvest’s Christian Faes have backed for previous rounds, will also be backed by Truelayer’s CEO & co-founder Francesco Simoneschi and ComplyAdvantage’s CEO & founder Charles Delingpole.

Plum has not given customers the chance to invest in the company since an oversubscribed round in 2019. This time, Plum is working with Crowdcube to engage potential shareholders, with the campaign going live at the end of September. The goal is to give customers another opportunity to invest in a company they care about, alongside the regular investments they make through the Plum app.

2021 has been a big year so far for Plum, with registered customer numbers on track for 2.5m by the end of the year. The company has seen +240% growth in assets under management year-on-year since June 2020, reflecting the boom in savings and investing during the COVID-19 pandemic. More than $900m has now been stashed away by Plum customers across Europe since the company launched in 2017.

Plum’s Co-Founder and CEO, Victor Trokoudes, commented: “Crowdfunding played a key part in Plum’s success in the early days. Back then, Plum was a simple chatbot, but we had a great community from the start who were keen to support us financially as well. The past few years have all been about validating our business model and realising our vision for a financial super app. Now, we’re ready to scale, and the time feels right to share our success again with the people who made it possible – the customers. 2020 has been big, and 2021 will be even bigger with our army of shareholders by our side.”