[caption id="attachment_230259" align="aligncenter" width="496"]
Investor Cash Management (ICM) has launched two new
products to compliment its smartphone app, seen here, that
allows consumers to invest in money markets.
PHOTO COURTESY OF DSU| PHOTO
COURTESY OF ICM[/caption]
WILMINGTON — With two new products on the market, financial technology company Investor Cash Management (ICM) has secured a $500,000 investment from a venture competition in February.
ICM won first place at the Capital Plus Financial Social Impact Venture Competition East Coast finals held in December, earning the top marks among eight businesses. Among the largest community development financial institutions (CDFIs) in the country, the win solidifies ICM Founder and CEO Fred Phillips’s mission to address racial and gender gaps in building wealth.
“Our product is a benign Trojan horse to convert individuals into investors and to empower those investors to build financial futures for themselves, their families and in their communities,” Phillips said. “We’re really looking forward to not only working with Capital Plus Financial, but other CDFIs and how to leverage that investment.”
The pitch competition was sponsored by Ernst & Young, the Latino Business Action Network, a Stanford University partner that operates the Stanford Latino Entrepreneurship Initiative, and the Community Consulting Lab at Johns Hopkins Carey Business School.
Shortly after that win, ICM also opened a round of internal financing – and combined with the prize – totaled $2 million in new funding.
Launched in 2018, ICM allows consumers to invest savings in mutual funds, government money markets and exchange-traded funds while also being able to draw on the money for day-to-day payments through a smartphone app. In late 2021, the fintech firm announced it would invest around $15 million in a new Wilmington headquarters and promised 395 jobs.
Last year, ICM expanded its product line to include advisor and business portals. The advisor portal is geared toward wealth management firms that capture and manage clients' cash and fixed income assets, like high-yield FDIC accounts, certificate of deposits or short-term bond funds.
“The idea is that we’re bringing the same concept: a portal for easy access with our state-of-the-art technology,” ICM Chief Administrative Officer Carolina Phillips said. “The next step is to think about what small businesses need and give them the same access we’re providing retail consumers, and give them the chance to become investors and have the same returns.”
Meanwhile, the business portal provides management services for small and medium-sized businesses. This tool can be used for something as simple as gaining higher income on cash assets, or use it to manage planned expenses, years down the road, with smart investments.
“For first-time investors, it’s easy to start with a conservative product, and for a business it’s the same thing,” Phillips said. “You can use this tool as simple as getting returns you wouldn’t be getting, or something to match that product to the time horizon of your investment. It’s more sophisticated and efficient than leaving all the money in one bank account.”
ICM relocated from Chicago and signed a lease at 1201 N. Market St. two years ago with the goal of finding permanent space. Its employees work in a hybrid setting, with the core team still in Chicago, while other local talent is hired in the Delaware and Pennsylvania region. ICM declined to disclose its employment figures.
Phillips said the philosophy is to focus on retaining talent and growing the company’s size in response to growth, rather than hiring in advance of it.
Looking to the future, he also believes ICM is in a position to benefit from the rapidly rising interest rates that have many financial advisors and experts worried of a possible recession.
“As the rates go up, the yield on money market funds go up,” Phillips said. “The delta between the national average bank interest on checking and what we can provide can accelerate every time they go up. We can provide that immediate liquidity.”
