For tech-savvy investors who prefer investing in mutual funds with just a few clicks, there are fintech applications galore. While most apps are designed for those who are already in the know, at least of the basics of investing, completely avoiding recommendations and guidance may not serve the uninitiated.

But some fintech apps such as Investica and Scripbox have even got such novice investors covered. Besides providing a user-friendly platform for investing across fund houses, these apps also provide investment recommendations based on one’s goals and risk appetite.

For our DIY investors, here we review the Investica app. The app has 4.4 star rating and has been downloaded by over 1 lakh users.

Features

The on-boarding process is quite simple and requires minimum details such as email id, phone number, Aadhar and PAN. Investors can choose to invest in either regular or direct schemes of various mutual funds.

The app provides good information about various schemes, which can help them take informed decisions. Apart from a basic overview and details on the fund’s performance (across time periods and in comparison with peers and benchmark), the app gives details on standard deviation and current holdings, as well. The holdings are classified across various asset classes, sectors and market capitalisation. The app also specifies the top stocks in the portfolio.

It also provides ratings for every fund (analysed and rated by in-house experts), based on rolling returns (60 per cent weight), the AUM size and standard deviation (20 per cent each) of the fund.

For novice investors, the app also provides pre-set investment baskets (separate for SIPs and lump sums) such as, The Tax Saviour, Better Than FD and New Age RD from Salary, to choose from. Each basket, designed for specific goals and risk appetite, suggests investment in 2-3 funds (with required allocation to each), and the minimum amount and time period of investment.

Besides helping you import your existing portfolio and tracking the performance, the app also helps track investments of your family through its Family Investment Tracker.

What we like

The app serves both beginners and experts users and offers a personalised interface for each of them. Beginners can benefit from the app’s features such as recommendations, goal planners and SIP calculators. The recommendations provided in each of the features is also based on the risk profile selected by the user.

Apart from creating their own goals, investors can also make use of featured goals available on the app. After selecting your goal (or setting a new goal), the amount of SIP one needs to invest is prompted. The SIP amount varies with inputs on the number of years left for reaching the goal, inflation adjustment and the risk profile of the investor.

Based on their risk appetite, investors need to carefully categorise themselves as secure, cautious, moderate, aggressive or adventurous, to make rightful use of the feature. Besides, through its Portfolio Rebalancing feature, the app will also automatically recommend any changes to your existing investments to help maximum your returns, periodically.

Another standout feature is a bot-based financial planner, Optimo, that reviews your current investment portfolio, and provides recommendations. After entering the required details, the behavioral algorithm in Optimo helps users in planning for retirement or other goals, insurance and emergency funds, expense management, and asset analysis.

Many existing users seem to be delighted with the app’s customer support (based on reviews on Google Play Store).

Watch out for

While all the above features need no additional payouts, we observed that the app mostly recommends regular schemes. Investors who wish to save on commissions can invest in the direct scheme of the same funds recommended by the app. Direct schemes have the word ‘Direct’ in the scheme name.

A few users have raised concerns (reviews on Play Store) over technical glitches such as delayed OTP messages and improper payment links. That apart, the app does not currently support payments through UPI. Users can only use payments modes such as NEFT/RTGS, net banking and debit card.

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