The unbundling of fintech: When fintech apps spawn new offerings

Over the past few months we have seen fintechs leverage their apps to reach more customers as well as make their business models more resilient. Here are three micro case studies from Public, Acorns, and Copper Banking that show how these firms are using their apps strategically. 

1) How Public is increasing its reach by bringing its investment-focused chatbot into a standalone app

Late last year, online broker Public launched its Gen AI powered chatbot as a standalone app called Alpha (named after the chatbot itself). Alpha is available worldwide while Public’s investing app is available to customers in the US only.

The launch is an interesting strategy that extends Public’s presence beyond its current app and audience while serving as an engine for the firm’s commitment to incorporate Gen AI more heavily into its identity and product.

The backstory

Last year Public’s co-CEO and co-founder Leif Abraham said that the firm is planning on actively leveraging younger investors’ DIY preference.

“As they grow their wealth, only parts of their portfolio will be managed. We expect that these managed products will look more like “guided products”, where the investor decides themselves which strategy to pursue, with help from the platform and AI,” he said.

It’s this change that Public wants to address as it develops its platform and product strategy. But the chatbot’s capabilities right now as well as market readiness and regulations are not quite where they need to be to make this happen. “Currently Alpha, our AI assistant, is solely used to provide insights into the markets, public companies, and other assets. In the future, Alpha will expand to help people manage their portfolio,” he shared at the time. 

While the new app doesn’t quite achieve this goal, Public is consistently making incremental improvements to how deeply Alpha is tied into the Public investing experience. Over the course of a few months last year, the firm expanded the chatbot so that it pinged customers when relevant events like a dramatic stock move were happening with explanations on its causes. 

With the recent launch, the new app allows Alpha to learn from a much wider audience and also brings in new customers to engage with Public.

The master plan 

The new app is free for Public customers but comes with an introductory offer of $1/week for everyone who’s not currently signed up. 

“Where the Public app which is a fully fledged, powerful multi-asset trading platform offering stocks, treasuries, corporate bonds, crypto, options and more – Alpha is focused only on your watchlist and context around it,” said Jannick Malling, co-CEO and co-founder of Public. 

The Alpha app is only available to iPhone users at the moment and is listed as an experiment by the company. It is unclear at the moment how long the firm plans on keeping the standalone app as part of its digital footprint.  

One thing is clear however: Public puts a lot of stock in Alpha’s current capabilities, and opening it up globally will allow the LLM behind Alpha to get better at its job and also may enable the company to open up its fractional investing platform to a global audience down the road. 

2) Multiple apps to rule them all? Acorns bets on kids-focused financial products through the Acorns Early app