Money management app Plum has raised $10 million in a funding round led by Japan’s Global Brain and the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development.
In addition, the company has received further funding from long-term backer VentureFriends, with match funding of $2.5 million from the UK government’s Future Fund scheme. Lifetime investment in Plum now stands at $19.3m.
Launched in the UK in 2017 by former TransferWise staffer Victor Trokoudes and Alex Michael of TicTail, Plum uses AI to automate key parts of personal finance for its one million users, such as automated savings, bill switching and investing.
Plum has recently used Open Banking to give users a 360 degreee of all their accounts and also introduced an interest-bearing account paying up to 0.6 percent on cash set aside by the Plum app.
With the new funding secured, Plum aims to roll out its service beyond the UK to continental Europe, beginning with launches in Spain and France by the end of 2020.
The company is also planning to hire a further 20 employees, bringing staff numbers up to 80 in product, operations and marketing functions.