Dmitri Love hopes his Bundil App will catch the Shark’s attention when he pitches it in episode 1002. Bundil works like other “spare change” apps: you link a credit or debit card to the app and it “rounds up” purchases, depositing the extra change into an investment account. There are several well known apps – like Stash, Acorns, and Clink – that use this method to invest in the stock market. Last season on Shark Tank, the ChangED app used this method for paying down student loan debt. The Bundil App is reinventing the wheel, but with its own twist.
Bundil’s hook is they use the spare change to invest in cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin, Ethereum, Litecoin, and BitcoinCash. Cryptocurrencies are a hot item, buoyed by the meteoric rise of Bitcoin last December. Many investors and large financial institutions got on the bandwagon investing in cryptocurrency. Like other investments, the small or beginning investor often gets shut out due to lack of initial investment capital. That’s where the Bundil App comes in.
The Bundil App costs two bucks a month. If you round-up a buck and a half per day, you’ll have $45 to invest ($43 after the fees). Simply pick which cryptocurrency you want to invest in and let the app do the rest. You can track your portfolio growth and manage your currencies inside the app. You can even stop investing at anytime. Since spare change investing apps appear to be a new vehicle, there’s probably room for the Bundil App in the investment landscape. The question is, will a Shark want to invest?
My Take on the Bundil App
I have a friend who bought ten Bitcoin for about twelve bucks a few years ago. He cashed them in at around $8,000 each and made quite a pile! There are a lot of stories like that out there, hence the fascination with cryptocurrencies. The problem is, there is no regulation. It’s all a blockchain online. I personally am very wary of the whole thing – there’s no recourse if a currency gets hacked or if it’s a scam in the first place.
I own some stocks in an IRA. I have Proctor and Gamble, Coke, and some other blue chips. I also have money in several mutual funds. I’ve been investing in the market for over thirty years. These micro investment apps are geared toward the beginning investor who wants to start investing but doesn’t have huge amounts of capital. The Bundil App may get some seasoned investors who want to test the cryptocurrency market, but I can’t see telling a beginning investor to put money, even a small amount, into such a risky investment. I think I’m out on this one.
Will Sharks Invest?
Last season, Mark Cuban invested $250,000 for a 25% stake in ChangEd, the aforementioned student loan “spare change app.” Bundil is essentially the same thing, it just invests instead of paying down debt. Could Cuban see synergy?
I see the Sharks having several objections. The first is the obvious riskiness and newness of cryptocurrency investing. The second is the suitability of cryptos for the beginning investor. Currency trading, whether it’s on Forex, the commodities exchanges or cryptocurrencies, is very risky. While Sharks like risk, they may not want to expose people without proper knowledge to it.
There are other apps that do what Bundil does, too. Cred is a new cryptocurrency trading app that does essentially the same thing, but it offers more currencies to trade. Another potential objection is the Bundil App is only available for iPhone as of the original air date – that leaves out a lot of users. It also sends up a red flag that perhaps the Sharks passed on this investment.
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