Dec 15, 2021
Beatvest: Educating people to invest confidently
Meet Julia and Sophie. Together, they founded beatvest, an app-based investment platform that aims to increase financial literacy and helps people to start investing and building their portfolios.
“There are far too many people who have their money sitting in their savings accounts instead of investing it,” says Sophie Thurner, one of the CEOs from the startup beatvest. “ But most people simply don’t know how investing works. And that’s exactly what we want to change.”
Sophie Thurner studied finance and financial market regulation in the UK and worked for many years for the financial regulators in the UK and the US. Her co-founder, Julia Kruslin, studied business administration, specialized in digital innovation management, and then worked as a strategy consultant. The two met while surfing in Fuerteventura in early 2021. “ It was an immediate fit. The passion for finance, the desire for an own company,” says Julia Kruslin. “And the one question our friends kept asking us: ‘What should I actually invest in?’”
That’s how the idea for beatvest was born. An app-based platform that guides its users through the tangles of the financial market, educating them and supporting them in building their own portfolios directly on beatvest.
The first app to help people personalize their portfolios
In a market environment of high inflation and low or even negative interest rates, savings accounts simply are not an option for investors anymore. Yet, due to the lack of knowledge, many people have not yet dared to start investing in financial markets. The recent rise of neobrokers has proven that investors have adapted to innovative technologies and shifted their trading behaviour towards app based tools. Yet, these platforms often overwhelm investing beginners, as they require the user to already know what they want to invest in and how to build their portfolios..
“We believe that what investment beginners need to start their investment journey is a mix between the right level of education and tools that allow them to build their long term wealth via a diversified and personalized portfolio. This also means taking into account different investment goals of the individuals.”, says Sophie Thurner.
Anyone who uses beatvest in the future will be guided step-by-step through their personal investment process. This starts with answering questions about one’s preferences and exploring the individual’s personalized investment profile. “For example, we ask whether someone considers themselves more risk-affine or risk-averse,” Kruslin continues. “ But in contrast to other players, we explain the rationale and importance behind these personalized questions to the user.
beatvest offers an unconventional way of learning by doing
On the platform, short simple videos explain various terms such as ETF, stock, or ESG, so users keep learning as they navigate through the app and understand more about the financial world on a day-to-day basis. When people feel ready, they can also invest directly through beatvest and according to their preferences
“beatvest is expected to go live next year. Until then, we are building a community through our newsletter and podcast,” explains Julia Kruslin. And her co-founder Sophie Thurner adds, “We’re building a product that’s very complex and requires high security — it’s important to us that everything runs smoothly.”
