Douugh's new app gives Aussie consumers access to BlackRock investment

ASX-listed fintech company Douugh could see its share price bounce back on the launch of a new micro-investing app that gives Australian consumers access to BlackRock-managed investment portfolios.

The move comes after Douugh's share price saw a sharp decline following its withdrawal from the US market and the collapse of Volt Bank, its local Banking-as-a-Service (BaaS) partner.

Douugh app gives Australians access to BlackRock portfolios

On 20 February, Douugh announced the launch of a new micro-investing service that enables Australian consumers to automatically invest in one of six diversified portfolios run by asset management giant BlackRock.

The service enables Australians to set up recurring micro-investing savings plans using Douugh's proprietary Autopilot feature, to direct funds towards risk-weighted, diversified portfolios under the management of BlackRock.

'We are delighted to announce the official launch of the first phase roll out of our Australian platform, and through a seamless customer investment experience and education, we aim to help Australians achieve financial independence, ' said Douugh CEO and founder Andy Taylor in a statement.

According to Douugh, users can access the service to invest as much or as little as they choose in their preferred portfolios or companies for just $1.

The new micro-investing app is part of Douugh's renewed focus on the Australian market following its US withdrawal.

'The difficult but logical decision to withdraw from the US...[allows] us to exclusively focus our attention and resources on our home market of Australia, which requires a lot less investment in order to reach profitability,' said Taylor in a previous statement.

Douugh's share price slides after US withdrawal

The launch of the micro-investing app in Australia arrives during a challenging period for Douugh, which saw sizeable declines in its share price towards the end of February.

Key factors behind Douugh's weakening share price have included its withdrawal from the US market and the collapse of Australian BaaS partner Volt.

'The dramatic decline in market conditions in 2022 and subsequent share price performance meant that we were unable to access the level of capital required to compete in the US and continue to build on the strong initial momentum we had experienced,' Taylor said in a statement.

'This was compounded by the rising cost to operate thanks to the declining value of the AUD against the USD.'

Douugh also recently grappled with the challenges created by the collapse of Volt Bank - the BaaS platform of UK-based Railsbank that entered a partnership with Douugh at the end of 2021.

Douugh hoped that a partnership with Volt would enable it to create a financial 'super-app' by mid-2022, encompassing the provision of bank account, debit card, financial management assistance and cryptocurrency trading services.

'By partnering with Railsbank, Douugh will rapidly gain access to fully licensed ADI-issued bank accounts, connection to the various payment rails in Australia, and Douugh-branded debit cards,' Taylor said at the time of the partnership's launch.

Those ambitions came to a halt, however, once Volt announced its permanent closure as a deposit-taking business in June 2022 on the grounds of funding issues.

'Unfortunately the closure of our BaaS provider Volt Bank, having already completed onboarding and integration work, meant we had to re-architect the platform in order to roll out in stages in Australia,' Taylor said in a statement this year.

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