Rethinking investment for the digital age with user-friendly apps and low-cost services

Michael Katchen has been investing money from a young age. When friends turned to him for advice, he didn’t just tell them where to invest; he founded a business that would revolutionize wealth management for his friends and other millennials. With Wealthsimple, Katchen has already helped over 15,000 people make smarter investments.

Traditional investment companies typically target a demographic of people aged 45 and above, but Weathsimple’s CEO, Katchen, wants to bring people into the world of investment earlier. “Millennials are missing out on opportunities to secure their financial future,” he explained. “A lot of young people are mistrustful of big banks and put off by the paperwork. We are combining financial expertise with smart IT to shake up the industry and modernise investment.”

By using technology to automate the investment process, Wealthsimple keeps costs low for its customers and provides them with a simple mobile app for managing their portfolio.

As the fastest growing online investment manager, Wealthsimple needs to be able to develop and deliver apps easily, and integrate them with the legacy banking systems used by brokers and traders. From day one, the company decided to build its customer-facing web and mobile apps on Heroku, part of Salesforce Platform. As Karney Li, Head of Engineering and Financial Operations, revealed: “Heroku is the ideal solution for any startup needing to build something quickly. The solution’s scalability and ease of deployment has helped us get where we are today.”

By leveraging a cloud-based solution on a subscription model, Wealthsimple can focus on innovation instead of maintaining and updating software. “Cloud really levels the playing field,” added Katchen. “Traditional IT systems can limit a company’s ability to scale in today’s very fast-paced finance industry. Salesforce gives us the horsepower we need to grow our business.”

From customer onboarding and risk assessments to money transfers and meeting scheduling, Heroku underpins a range of core business processes at Wealthsimple. “With Salesforce, we’ve swapped lengthy manual forms with rapid automated processes,” said Katchen. “Customers can sign up in 10 minutes and have a fully invested account in a couple of days. This is a really powerful part of the experience for millennials, who make up approximately 85% of our client base.”

As its business continues to grow, Wealthsimple needs to ensure it can deliver the same seamless and rapid service. “With Salesforce, we can handle growing volumes of customers without having to spend more on expanding our infrastructure,” explained Li. “We can also release new features and fixes quickly, which helps safeguard the customer experience.”

In addition to its customer app, Wealthsimple has launched a mobile app for advisors, which will help them be more productive and nurture client relationships. “With Heroku, we can get a new app up and running in a matter of days,” revealed Li. “There’s no point reinventing the wheel when you can keep rolling at that kind of speed.”

With more apps in the pipeline, Wealthsimple’s ongoing investment in Salesforce will help unlock new opportunities. “With Salesforce, we can disrupt the industry by opening up investment to a wider audience. Our apps empower people to make smarter and faster decisions, so they can save for a brighter future,” said Katchen.

Learn more about how Salesforce Platform is your one-stop shop for building, running, managing and optimizing apps in an era where every company is in the app business.