Lindsay Dorf, who has a talent for understanding retail investing, noticed that many of her friends lacked confidence in investing. She saw an opportunity to create a tool that could help her friends, especially women, feel more comfortable with investing. This led to the development of Astor, a free personal finance platform that combines community and investing in an accessible way.
When users download Astor, they can input their bank and brokerage information to get an overview of their current financial situation. The platform allows users to view various funds such as emergency funds, savings goals, retirement accounts, and personal investment accounts. Astor provides investing breakdowns, showing annual returns, investment strategy compared to the market, and holdings broken down by performance, asset class, and returns.
Astor also offers a gamified feature called Path to Wealth, which simplifies the financial journey by providing insights on creating an emergency fund and setting new savings goals. The community aspect of Astor allows users to see charts of other users, compare returns, and follow them. This feature empowers users to learn from others and make informed decisions about their investments.
Dorf’s focus on women is based on the idea that women are more confident in investing when they see what people similar to them are doing with their money. Astor sets itself apart from other women-focused fintech companies by emphasizing investments over classic financial aggregation and providing a strong community aspect to boost users’ confidence in their financial strategies.
Dorf’s background in fintech and business has been instrumental in building Astor and securing funding for the platform. The company recently raised $1.4 million from various investors, enabling them to expand their team and onboard more users. With over 3,000 users, mostly women aged 20 to 35, Astor continues to focus on product development and building a strong community of users.
As Astor grows, Dorf aims to create a platform that promotes financial wellness and addresses users’ needs for new features. By prioritizing user feedback and engagement, Astor is set to become a valuable resource for women looking to enhance their financial literacy and confidence in investing.
