Seven West Media invests $10m in fintech Raiz
Seven West Media (SWM) has made an investment in fintech company Raiz, previously known as Acorn.
SWM has bought $10 million worth of shares, accounting for a 6.6% stake in Raiz, which is a fintech company that allows for micro-investing in the stock market through its different portfolios, as well as having a “spare change” feature that rounds up purchases to then be invested in shares. The $10 million will be split between $2 million in cash and the equivalent of $8 million in advertising across Seven’s broadcast television, publishing and digital media assets.
Raiz’s logo
As part of the investment, Seven will launch an advertising campaign to promote Raiz, with the aim of accelerating its growth.
SWM managing director and chief executive officer, James Warburton, said: “Raiz is a disruptive digital player that is targeting a huge market opportunity. Combining Raiz’s consumer offering, which has widespread appeal, with SWM’s scale and audience reach provides a significant opportunity to grow the business and is a strong fit with the strategy of our Seven West Ventures group.”
Head of Seven West Ventures, SWM’s start-up investment arm, Alan Stuart, said: “Raiz is an exciting strategic investment opportunity with significant disruptive growth potential in the finance sector, both domestically and internationally. We have followed the Raiz story since launch and have been very impressed by what founders George Lucas and Brendan Malone and their Raiz team have achieved scaling the business. Similar to previous strategic investments, we believe by leveraging the power of our media assets across SWM we can help drive that next leg of growth for Raiz, building greater brand trust, awareness and adoption across Australia.”
Other investments by Seven West Ventures include an investment in task outsourcing business Airtasker.
In a statement published on the ASX this morning, Raiz joint group CEO Brendan Malone said: “This investment by Seven into the Raiz business is a strong endorsement of Raiz’s business model and management’s ability to execute. After extensive discussions with Seven, we have concluded that its media assets and reach are an excellent means to promote Raiz’s products and services to achieve the accelerated growth we require.
Raiz launched nearly six years ago, and has largely grown organically and by using paid social media to acquire customers.
“With Seven we will be able to re-engage with many of these customers as well as expand our reach to a fresh audience and explain why Raiz is an excellent product for them for saving and investing in and outside of superannuation, even if they have broking accounts or high interest saving accounts with other organisations,” said Malone. “We are not an either-or product.”
He added: “We are excited to be working on new creative campaigns that can not only be used in Australia but in the Southeast Asian countries where we operate, determining a media strategy in conjunction with Seven to maximise our reach, and building brand stock that will not only accelerate growth in the next one to two years but put us in a good position to continue our growth trajectory beyond this.”
This article has been updated with how the investment will be split.
Probably worth noting that Seven hasn’t spent $10 million in cash in this investment, the deal is split between $2 million in cash and $8 million in advertising contra.
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Thanks to Mumbrella for updating their story after I commented and then publishing my comment.
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