The Douugh Ltd (ASX: DOU) share price has been a strong performer on Friday.
In morning trade the neobank's shares are up a sizeable 8% to 32.5 cents.
This means the Douugh share price is now up an impressive 983% since listing on the ASX at 3 cents per share on 6 October following its IPO.
What is Douugh?
Douugh is aiming to be a neobank with a difference. It is on a mission to democratise banking and make the world financially healthier.
It also aims to take an artificial intelligence-first approach to helping people spend wisely, save more, and build their wealth.
One key point of difference between it and other neobanks, such as Xinja and 86 400, is that Douugh is leveraging a wholesale BaaS model. This is instead of becoming its own licenced authorised deposit-taking institutions (ADI).
It is developing an integrated, AI-powered banking and wealth management app which is expected to go live in the United States in October before launching in Australia early in 2021.
Douugh's CEO, Andy Taylor, told Business Insider the he believes the company is better placed than its rivals to disrupt the banking sector.
He said: "If you look at Australia's neobanks right now, they're not building anything, they're not solving a problem and their business model does not allow them to because they've got to get straight into lending on the mortgage side, and you can see they're struggling."
Mr Taylor feels the company's plan to take advantage of Australia's new open banking regime and artificial intelligence is the way forward.
The CEO explained: "It has always been about asking how can we help people better manage their money and live financially healthier. We'll input all this data, train up the AI system to make your money work for you."
But the company won't be stopping there. It has its eyes on the wealth management industry, which the likes of Commonwealth Bank of Australia (ASX: CBA) and other big four banks are retreating from.
Mr Taylor said: "We have built that underlying platform and the next stage of that is for us to introduce wealth management into that and invest that money for you. And that's what's coming in the next six months."
"We're talking about putting you in the right portfolio to help you achieve your personal goal faster, and in a way that's managed, diversified, and is not promoting you to speculate your money on single stocks," he added.
