What’s Wrong with Money Management Apps?

This article is a Fintech Today guest post, written by Anthemis Group’s Alex Steiner. If you’re interested in subscribing to Fintech Today — a weekly research newsletter — click here. If you’re interested in submitting a guest post, send an email with your idea to ian@fintechtoday.co.

From my couch, I can buy SEC-registered shares of a 1985 Ferrari Testarossa. I can also purchase Bitcoin and Ethereum, build robust copy-trading strategies, or compare home insurance quotes online. And yet, despite the proliferation of consumer finance over the past decade, personal financial management (PFM) tools are still lagging in functionality and features.

With more than 13 million users, Mint is considered the market leader in the PFM space. However, after being quickly acquired by Intuit in 2009 for $170m, the app has spent more than a decade failing to innovate. Features are outdated, poorly designed, and in some cases are even broken — just check out the screenshot below. Despite this, Mint remains unchallenged in regards to market share.