Investor Identity Research Project Gains Momentum With Stash as New Partner
In Project Supported by the Nasdaq Foundation, Commonwealth Collaborates with Popular Investing App Stash to Explore Investor Identity’s Influence on New Investors
Commonwealth’s Investor Identity Research Project, funded by the Nasdaq Foundation, continues to build momentum with the addition of Stash, a leading investing app focused on empowering new investors to achieve their financial goals and build long-term wealth, to its list of partners for the project.
Capital markets investing is a proven means of building long-term wealth and financial security, and as a result, Commonwealth is dedicated to efforts around developing innovative products that serve new investors. Our prior research indicates that inclusive product design is a key pathway to serving underserved new investors.
In recent years, technology has made investing more accessible to individuals—but the gaps remain stark, particularly for investors who are Black, Latinx, and women. The Investor Identity Research Project delves into the development of investor identity, exploring the factors that influence its development across multiple platforms.
Stash Joins Roster of Investing Platforms
The addition of Stash to Commonwealth’s roster of fintech partners for this project, alongside Ellevest and Public, underscores the commitment that pioneering fintechs are making to foster an inclusive investing system.
Our goal is to empower people to invest and build better lives, starting with what they have to spare, even if that’s just a few dollars. Partnering with Commonwealth and others to more clearly understand investing behavior helps us all better address wealth inequalities. Commonwealth’s track record in driving systemic change, coupled with their extensive research on inclusive design, has the potential to make significant impact.”
Shannon Allmon, Chief Experience Officer, Stash
Stash is enlisting its own customers into the pilot, recruiting new participants who will receive seed money to invest on the platform. The insights gleaned from customer participation will help to establish new guidelines for inclusive fintech product design.
Stash is an ideal partner for this project, and we are particularly excited about their focus on first-time investors. Their dedication to developing a more inclusive product affirms the notion that capital markets investing has tremendous potential for advancing the financial security and opportunity for all people living in the U.S., including those currently underserved by the investing ecosystem.”
Paula Grieco, Senior Vice President, Commonwealth
Stash’s mission to empower people to invest and build better lives, starting with those just beginning their financial journey, aligns with Commonwealth’s mission to build financial security and opportunity for all. With approximately 2 million active subscribers and nearly $3 billion in assets managed, Stash’s platform has extensive reach and brings the opportunity to drive large-scale change within the fintech ecosystem.
“Investor Identity” as a Key Element of Inclusive Design
Commonwealth’s earlier research identified “investor identity” as a key barrier to the participation of women and people of color in capital markets. This includes perceiving oneself as the kind of person who can or should invest, and the feeling that one belongs in the community of people who invest. Commonwealth’s research has found that two-thirds of working women earning low and moderate incomes want to invest in capital markets, but fewer than 40% actually are doing so. The focus of the project is to better understand these barriers and develop actionable insights, designs, and innovations that create a more inclusive investing environment.
The Investor Identity Research Project is part of Nasdaq’s New Investor Initiative, which expands the Nasdaq Foundation’s commitment to diversity in investor engagement through a portfolio of partnership organizations. Stash joins investing platforms Ellevest and Public in this research on advancing product design and innovations that meet the needs of underrepresented investors. The ultimate goal is to develop product innovations that will empower new investors and women of color to invest as we move toward making wealth building accessible to all. The findings from this work will help fintechs and financial services firms engage new investors in the capital market, creating a new pathway to building wealth.
Through this partnership with Commonwealth, we are continuing our efforts to create a more equitable investment community and cultivate a stronger investor identity among women and communities of color. With this research, we hope to uncover data-driven, actionable insights that investing platforms can leverage to build inclusive products that help close racial and gender wealth gaps.”
Jailan Griffiths, President, Nasdaq Foundation
With the Investor Identity Research Project, we aim for our research to persuade investing platforms to prioritize this new target audience through design choices that facilitate both the development of investor identity and healthy investing habits, and to broaden the idea of who is and is not an investor. This shift represents a new target market for fintechs and financial service providers while also providing them with the opportunity to have significant social impact in closing the racial and gender wealth gap.
