Hot Seat Live Interview Series – Episode 2: Raiz Invest

Back in July, Rakuten Advertising interviewed Jessica Rayner and Harrison Lochtenberg from Raiz Invest in the second episode of the Hot Seat Live Interview Series. We asked Jess and Harrison about their products, new and innovative partnership opportunities for advertisers, and industry hot topics – all while they douse their lunch in progressively hotter hot sauces!

In this episode, our Publisher Development Manager, Nima Ghaemi, sat down to find out more about investments during a pandemic, online-to-offline strategies for retailers, and whether Jess and Harrison prefer bitcoin or tech start-ups.

Our audience was given a chance to ask Jess and Harrison any burning questions during the interview and while we didn’t get to all of them at the time, we have since reached out to Jess for her thoughts on these.

How has the COVID-19 pandemic impacted the various portfolio risk levels that customers can invest in? I.e. is the low risk portfolio impacted less at this stage?

The market has recovered significantly since March and portfolios have gained back a majority of what they had lost. The market continues to be volatile compared to pre-pandemic times, but our portfolios are well diversified, and we also invest in equities containing bonds and cash.

If investment was not a factor, what changes would you bring to Raiz (product, tech, personnel) to propel its growth?

The investment side of things is definitely one of our USPs as we have shaken up the industry and made investing so much more accessible for all. As pioneers in the micro-investment space with a rapidly growing portfolio, we’re in a great position to add value through our new product features.

In terms of propelling growth, we are constantly introducing new features that appeal to new audiences. For example, our Emerald portfolio provides an ethical option and our Sapphire portfolio is designed for crypto-currency fans. We also introduced in-store rewards for offline shoppers, giving new-to-online and traditional brick-and-mortar retailers an option to be included in our Raiz Rewards programme.

We are working on many new and exciting products which we are hoping to launch shortly, stay tuned! 

Can you explain the end-to-end journey for a customer?

Customers can download the Raiz app from the app store and immediately begin micro-investing. They simply choose from one of our seven investment portfolios and can start with as little as $5. The app then allows our customers to access a range of features including MyFinance, Raiz Kids, Raiz Super and most importantly, where our retailer partners come in, Raiz Rewards.

To activate Raiz Rewards, our customers can simply browse the Raiz Rewards section of our app, find a retailer and view their rewards. The customer can then tap on the retailer’s logos and will be redirected to the retailer’s site to make a purchase. If the purchase meets the eligibility criteria, we will invest the reward back into their Raiz account.

As for in-store offers, customers can activate the offer in-app then proceed to make a purchase on their linked card at a physical store to receive the reward.

What customer acquisition strategies do currently use to grow your base? What are your plans for 2020 and beyond?

Raiz is in a very fortunate position where most of our growth stems from word-of-mouth. We are a unique and readily accessible, mobile-first investment platform in Australia. Aside from this, we also invest in digital marketing particularly social media channels.

So far, 2020 has been a big and busy year at Raiz. We have launched our Sapphire portfolio which includes a target weight of 5% Bitcoin, forged a new partnership with bundll and introduced in-store rewards. We will continue to focus on encouraging our customers to use these products and we are always working on exciting new concepts and updates which we hope to share with our customers soon.

What’s the average return on advertising spend (ROAS) recorded across the retail vertical?

The average ROAS for activity in July was $7, ranging from $2 to $14. This is heavily dependent on the brand’s offer and strategy.

What’s the product roadmap for Raiz over the next 3-5 years? And where are your developers based at?

The concept behind Raiz’s product roadmap is to offer new financial products as requested by our customers, such as building customisable portfolios. Our recent product launches have been consumer-driven, and we look to continue to listen and take on feedback from our customers to improve on our new and existing products. We have awesome team of developers in Australia and

We are also looking to expand our footprint by introducing our products to new countries such as Malaysia, Indonesia and possibly Thailand.

In case you missed the live interview, you can watch the full episode below. We would like to thank Jess and Harrison for introducing Raiz Invest and sharing their thoughts with us.

If you would like to participate in the next interview, please contact your Account Manager today. Otherwise, follow us on LinkedIn to be the first to hear about our next episode.