Disruptive consumer fintech Douugh announced that it is expanding in the United States, with the rollout of its ‘Freemium’ smart bank account and Mastercard debit card proposition to its growing waitlist.
On a mission to democratise banking and build the autonomous future of money management, Douugh is a consumer technology company that offers an AI powered financial wellness banking platform, delivered through a SaaS subscription model.
With thousands of customers on its waitlist already in the U.S, the Douughbank account provides a full suite of everyday mobile banking functionality, along with enhanced and unique features focused on helping users spend less, kill debt, save more and build wealth.
What is Douugh doing differently?
A true disruptor in the market, Douugh is unlike other ‘traditional’ international neobanks such as Monzo, N26, Revolut and local challengers such as 86400, Volt and Xinja who are taking a mobile first approach and applying for their own banking licence to sell traditional bank products.
Douugh is a technology company, taking an AI first approach and building a proprietary software platform, partnering with a bank in each country to provide it with deposit taking capabilities and a virtual balance sheet. Douugh is pioneering a new platform based and customer centric business model, focused on delivering financial wellness to the masses – unlike traditional banks who are selling more debt to their customers.
A similar business model to that of accounting software platform Xero. Douugh is a SaaS business, looking to build an ecosystem of value added services to its customers, integrated into the core bank platform.
To deliver on this, Douugh has partnered with Mastercard globally to issue a co-branded debit card and Choice Bank in the US market to be the issuer of it’s bank account and holder if it’s customer deposits.
What else has Douugh beeen up to?
The company has also recently aligned itself with Japan’s leading financial services companies, Monex Group, Inc. (Tokyo Stock Exchange) and chosen Regional Bank Australia to be it’s local Australian banking partner for its planned launch in 2020.
Founder of Douugh and CEO Andy Taylor is quick to point out that Douugh is in fact a technology company rather than a bank, giving it a unique competitive advantage to focus exclusively on growth and innovation around a customer centric proposition.
“Douugh sees its future as being a financial wellness platform and control centre, where people can manage their money on autopilot – allowing third party apps and merchants to integrate and offer value added curated services to our customers through open API’s. We will also look to expose our own API products to third parties, in the form of payments and open banking data connections,” he said.
“We are looking to blitzscale to become the dominant global wellness banking platform. Currently live and scaling in the U.S, before rolling out to Australia and other markets in partnership with Mastercard. Douugh also plans to offer a ‘Premium’ subscription product in the near future, initially incorporating wealth management and cash rewards,” says Taylor.
