The investment market is booming as more people seek opportunities to grow their wealth through diverse income streams. The global market size for investment is expected to grow from $3964.52 billion in 2023 to $4254.18 billion by the end of 2024, with an annual growth rate (CAGR) reaching 7.3%. Since the market is ripe not just with benefits but risks, too, people are developing an interest in investment applications to help them handle the basics before diving in.
The digital investment market is projected to reach $3,409 billion by 2028, highlighting the growing popularity of investment apps and presenting a lucrative opportunity for business innovators to capitalize on.
Many barriers to investment have fallen due to greater accessibility and democratization of investments, making it easier to seek beginner-friendly investment platforms. The demand for these apps is surging, driven by the need for simplicity, automation, and convenience in managing finances.
For entrepreneurs looking to tap into emerging business opportunities, developing an investment app is a promising channel to unlock potential in a new technology space. This article will guide you through how to create an investment app and the essential steps involved. Ready to dive in?
Understanding investment apps
Let’s pause for a short definition. What is an investment app? It’s a mobile or web-based platform that helps users manage their finances. It can cover everything from buying and selling stocks, bonds, cryptocurrencies, or anything in between.
Mobile investment apps target different types of users and audiences based on their expectations, level of knowledge of the market, and income.
Types of investment apps
Banking investment apps
One of the basic types of apps, this one’s more of a “do it yourself” kind. Users receive just the primary information on the potential investments, such as stock prices or the minimum amount of purchase. What makes this app to manage investments so appealing is its simplicity — it’s an all-in-one solution.
Robo-advisors
A more creative type, they use complex algorithms to provide automated, low-cost investment advice and portfolio management. The best investment apps in this category offer user-centric, AI-powered analytics to help users achieve their goals. They can inquire about an individual’s risk tolerance and specific financial objectives, catering to different clients.
Savings and goal-based investment apps
Not everyone can afford to invest huge chunks of their savings, so micro-investment can be a better strategy for them. Some of the top mobile investing apps leverage this prospect and target audiences with different incomes. They typically help users set particular financial goals, such as retirement funding, and invest small amounts to reach those targets.
Trading apps
Trading apps are for more active users and offer real-time data, charting tools, and the ability to execute trades quickly. They are also for more independent customers who have a general familiarity with the assets they are interested in.
Peer-to-peer lending apps
These apps for investment are designed for lending finances between individuals. Bypassing the involvement of financial institutions has its benefits and risks as well, but this field is growing. People provide money to lenders in exchange for a certain interest.
Alternative investment apps
Some users look for ways to diversify their portfolio with less traditional investment options. Finding less paved options makes it both lucrative and fascinating for individuals already familiar with the industry. These mobile investing apps can cover anything from real estate to art, offering niche markets that are otherwise difficult to access.
Popular investment apps on the market
Learning how to make an investment app gets easier once you know the examples. These best investment applications can help you figure out what makes a good platform and what to strive for in your own project.
Acorns: Save & Invest
A micro-investment app, Acorns is designed to make investing easier and less painful for users’ wallets. Its key feature is the ability to round up users’ everyday purchases and automatically invest spare change into a diversified portfolio.
The primary principle of this app lies in long-term benefits, allowing individuals to passively grow their money without spending a lot of time on managing their investments.
Stash
Quite a good catch for people with limited resources, Stash makes it easier for them to invest small amounts in stocks, ETFs, and other assets. It provides personalized advice and education, which is good for training those only dipping their toes in new waters.
Even though it’s a good idea for beginner investors, it still trains them to grow more acclimated with the field and make more informed decisions with time.
Betterment. Invest & Save Money
Betterment is known as the robo-advisor app with automated portfolio management based on your risk tolerance and certain financial needs and expectations. Users’ portfolios are diversified with the help of low-cost ETFs, making it easier to respond to changes in the market as time progresses.
Similarly to Acorn and Stash, it’s also predominantly focused on long-term wealth management rather than quick achievements.
5 steps to develop an investment app
Now that you’re familiar with the types and examples of top investment apps, you’re more equipped to go through investing app development. Here are the basic steps you should consider.
1. Research and set goals
As tempting as it might be to start immediately, research can save you from lots of risks. So, before asking yourself how to build an investment app, pose two other questions: what do you want to do, and what are the pain points?
Look through the field and see where there’s more opportunity than competition. Define your app’s unique selling proposition (USP) and establish clear business goals. Think about what group you want to cater to: beginners, experienced traders, or experts.
2. Choose a monetization strategy
Understandably, you don’t launch your investment platform for free, so determining the right monetization can make or break it for your users. When choosing a monetization approach, take in account your target audience’s financial capacities.
- Freemium. In this model, you provide the basic features for free and make your users pay for the ones that really cut the deal.
- Commission-based. You might consider taking a percentage from each transaction or profit your customers make.
- Subscription-based. This strategy allows individuals to use the app for a regular monthly payment, but it typically requires the program to work for users’ earnings.
3. Decide on features to include
Keep in mind that the features to look for in an investment app depend on the type of investment app you create. You may consider the following:
User registration and onboarding
Simplify the sign-up and sign-in processes — nothing annoys a newcomer more than a need to jump through hoops to get started. Create a quick walkthrough for your customers and explain the basics to them after registration.
Secure authentication
Make the process of authentication accessible for different types of devices, such as biometric logins (fingerprint or facial recognition) for newer smartphones or multi-factor authentication. If you plan to make a popular investment app, it also means it can become vulnerable to threats.
Personal profile
Aside from allowing a user to enter personal information, add other details, such as portfolio, payment methods, and other specifics. Many apps allow customers to put certain investment preferences and even strategies, such as low-risk, moderate, or aggressive.
Trading functionalities
If you plan to create an investment app with an emphasis on trading, it’s critical to provide real-time market data, quick trade execution options, and other features like stop-loss or limit orders.
Market research tools
Even if you plan to target complete newbies, it will still be useful for you to add information about the industry to keep your customers informed. You can add important fluctuations in the field and even reports on the market analysis to make investment decisions easier.
Portfolio tracking and performance analysis
Enable your users to monitor their investment performance and understand how their portfolio is doing. This can cover asset allocation and diversification of their resources. You may add an option for assessing the earnings and losses over time and highlight important points.
Funds withdrawal
Simplify the process for users to withdraw funds or transfer them to their linked bank accounts or other options.
Virtual advisor (chatbot)
If you plan to add a chatbot to your investment app, you can offer your clients an AI-powered advisor to answer questions and make personalized advice on investments. It is often linked to a user’s risk profile and specific goals. Today, this feature is on the rise — in 2024, the global chatbot market has reached $7.01 billion.
News feed and educational resources
Your customers will trust you even more if you deliver them news in the field and explain it in a bite-sized manner. Provide relevant and educational content, such as articles or tutorials, to help users expand their investment knowledge. Even if you offer services based on your management of their assets, both of you will earn more once your customers know more.
Customer support features
When creating an investment app, remember that your client service is one of the main strengths that can distinguish you from your competitors. Offer live chat, phone number, email, and social media as the main communication channels. Don’t let technical or investment-related troubles affect the popularity of your app.
4. Design, develop and test
That’s the main part that helps you build an investment app and bring your idea to life. During the design stage, account for user interface (UI) and user experience (UX) as the foundation for your app. Choose a user-friendly layout that makes information easy to access — there’s no need to overcomplicate an already complex topic.
As you enter the development phase, you will have to translate the design of your investment application into code, integrate the backend systems (such as databases and APIs), and build the app’s main functionalities. Your platform (iOS, Android, or both) will determine what framework and programming languages your team will choose.
A regular development process can cover these aspects:
- Frontend. It targets visible app elements, such as UI/UX, making it more attractive to a user.
- Backend. It manages the app’s server-side operations, such as databases, storage of users’ data, ensuring security protocols, and providing third-party integrations.
- API and integrations. This stage allows your application for investment to access all the crucial market information via APIs and integrations inside your app.
The last stage, testing, accounts for the smooth functioning of your app and ensures that the user experience is excellent. It will cover an adequate app response time, overall performance, and beta testing.
Important: Remember that these stages and their efficiency depend on your chosen development company, so always spend time choosing the right company with experience to help you.
5. Launch and update
While you’ve done a great part of the job already, launching your app for investment is vital as well. This process includes pre-launch preparation, such as implementing marketing efforts to build anticipation, a soft launch to a limited user group, an official launch, and further collection of user feedback.
Your product is an almost living thing, so, naturally, it will grow as you identify errors, challenges, or better pathways to grow.
Looking to build an investment app?
At Eastern Peak, we have the expertise to bring your vision to life with secure, user-centric solutions.
Considerations
Now that you’re familiar with how to build an investment platform, we can cover two primary considerations that you should take into account before launching your app.
Regulatory compliance and security
Investment apps operate in a highly regulated industry with multiple risks. For example, 88% of all financial apps have weak encryption, and 77% contain at least one critical vulnerability. That’s why you should pay attention to security during personal investing app development.
Make sure your app complies with crucial regulatory standards, such as Know Your Customer (KYC) protocols, Anti-Money Laundering (AML) guidelines, General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) in the EU, and others.
To enforce security, use strong encryption protocols for data protection and implement secure authentication. In the future, conduct regular security audits to make sure your app performs well even later. Additionally, ensure that your program follows field security standards, for example, the Payment Card Industry Data Security Standard (PCI DSS).
APIs and third-party integrations
While APIs are indispensable to the adequate performance of your app due to their specificity, it can get risky. You may want to add APIs for providing market data, processing payments, offering robo-advisor services, or verifying your users.
The same goes for such options as brokerage, banking, or news integrations. When you plan to add such integrations to your app, look for secure options and ensure a richer user experience.
Invest in your future
Creating an investment platform stems beyond simply making a good application. As the financial landscape continues to evolve, investment apps have the potential to democratize access to markets, offering entrepreneurs new audiences to grow with. It’s a chance to get hands-on with innovation and actively experience industry changes.
Creating the best investment app takes more than just an idea — it demands substantial resources and a well-planned strategy. Ready to bring your dream investment app to life? Contact our team and let’s begin today.
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