Scout, a Los Angeles, CA-based provider of an investing platform, raised $2.6M in Seed funding.
The round was led by Chingona Ventures, with participation from BDMI, OnDeck, OneTeam Partners, Reach Capital, Gaingels, Hustle Fund, Alive VC, Broadhaven Ventures, Chris Paul, Vernon Davis, Tim Fong, Jay Kapoor, and Jimmer Fredette, and Kyle Hines.
The company intends to use the funds to accelerate growth, expand operations and its business reach.
Led by CEO Michael Haddix, Jr., Scout is an investing platform with a mission to make investing fun, relatable and safe. They help build responsible and recurring investing habits by encouraging participation in diversified portfolios with a mixture of themes (funds) that feel personally aligned with the interests and experiences that individuals are passionate about.
Scout believes that investing should be an experience based on people’s interests. Upon signup, the platform asks users to:
- Step 1: Share personal investment goals and risk tolerance.
- Step 2: Select “Scout Themes” (funds) based on interests to create a personalized, risk-managed portfolio.
- Step 3: Scout blends those Themes with other diversified US Equities and US Municipal bonds (referred to as your “Scout Starter Pack”)
The curated themes (funds) in Step 2 currently offer 15 differentiated investment options (with more being added each day) that may align with personal interests, ranging from themes like: I Love College (companies from the US food and beverage sector with a focus on fast food, alcohol, and other guilty pleasures); Love of the Game (companies that develop or publish video games, facilitate streaming or downloading of gaming/esports content, or produce hardware used in video games and esports); So Glamorous (companies across apparel, luxury goods and other consumer retail products like handbags, shoes, jewelry and more); The Secret Fund of Pets (companies that support pet ownership, health and the general trends in how we care for our pets) and The Open Road (companies involved in the development of self-driving cars, EVs and EV components and materials).
In conjunction with the funding announcement, Scout has emerged from its private beta program and is now available in the Apple App Store.
FinSMEs
28/09/2022