This is part four of a six part blog series about savings technology. Last week we discussed how savings technology works in goals-based PFM platforms and standalone, automated savings platforms and yesterday we looked at solutions targeted to Generation Z. Today, we’re shifting our focus to crowdfunded savings.

Missed the other five savings categories? Check them out:

• Goals-based PFM
• Standalone, automated
• GenZ-targeted
• Advice-only
• Passive investing

The crowdfunding model has existed for more than a decade and expanded significantly when Obama enacted Title II of the JOBS Act in 2013. It’s no surprise, then, that we’re starting to see this model creep into the savings realm to enable friends and family to contribute money toward others’ goals.

Crowdfunded savings

These solutions are like Kickstarter for savings goals. Having a platform where you can request money or simply advertise what you’re saving for (in the hope someone might contribute), helps remove some of the awkwardness from asking for money. Spiff and InSpirAVE are goals-based PFM platforms that enable friends and family to contribute to users’ savings goals.

• Spiff
  Norway-based Spiff launched its saving app at FinovateEurope 2016 in London. The company’s user interface simplifies what it takes to save for a goal and gives the user the option to save their money in a bank or in an investment fund. Spiff makes saving money a bit more fun by letting the user assign pictures to their goals and share them on social media and via messenger, where friends and family can contribute.

Couples who Spiff together, save together

• InSpirAVE
  Having dubbed its solution the Internet of Savings, InSpirAVE has a lot to live up to. The company’s combination savings-shopping platform takes goals from cradle-to-grave, so to speak. InSpirAVE leverages third party information from eBay and other shopping sites to enable users to search for the exact product they want and build a wish list with the different options. Users solicit the opinions of their friends and family, who vote for the product they want to user to buy, and ultimately contribute funds to help the user make the purchase.

The key to InSpirAVE is that the entire process– from dreaming of the goal, to finding the perfect product, funding and contributing to the goal, and even the point of purchase– takes place entirely within the InSpirAVE platform. The company’s founder and CEO Om Kundu, along with CTO Mark Krofchik, debuted at FinovateFall 2016 in New York.

To recap, here are the types of savings tech we’ve seen so far:

• Goals-based PFM
• Standalone, automated
• GenZ-targeted
• Crowdfunded savings

Stay tuned later this week for the final two categories.