DriveWealth, LLC, a leader in global digital trading technology, in partnership with IPJukebox, a consumer-focused fintech company, announced the launch today of WealthSeed, a new online investment product designed to give independent contractors a valuable alternative to traditional employer-sponsored plans. The DriveWealth platform is the engine for the new offering that aims to remove barriers to building long-term financial health. 

IQvestment, a registered investment advisor, will supply the investment options to WealthSeed customers based on their specific needs and risk tolerance.

DriveWealth CEO Robert Cortright said: “The growth of the gig economy is creating a great need for an investment product that will give independent contractors – who don’t have the advantage of tapping into an employer-sponsored plan – the ability to invest for the future through regular contributions.  We are excited to work with IP Jukebox on WealthSeed, an online investment product that meets the needs of this increasingly important segment of the U.S. economy.  Partnerships like this demonstrate the versatility of DriveWealth in using our technology, experience and brokerage expertise to help other innovative firms solve investment challenges all over the world.”

IPJukebox CEO Ed Konchalski said: “Whether they are freelancers, trade workers, IT programmers or other participants in the gig economy, independent contractors often don’t have access to a wealth-building system to provide financial security for their future. Our new WealthSeed offering removes the barriers to entry by offering easy-to-use online brokerage accounts with straightforward, quality investment choices – with no account minimum. Those workers who thought they couldn’t afford to invest or set money aside now have a great new vehicle, and it’s incredibly easy to get started.”

In a study released last August, Gallup estimated that 29% of all workers in the United States have an alternative work arrangement in their primary job and that more than a third of all workers – 36%, or approximately 57 million workers – have a gig work arrangement in some capacity.

With customers and partners in more than 140 countries, DriveWealth is the pioneer in bringing digital access to the U.S. securities market for investors around the world.  The company, which launched its patent-pending real-time fractional share trading capabilities in 2016, was founded with the mission to democratize investing in the U.S. stock market by making it available to everyone, globally, at an affordable cost. Feature by feature, DriveWealth has eliminated many of the barriers investors typically encounter with legacy brokers, creating its own proprietary infrastructure that enables its partners to offer investors the ability to purchase securities without minimum account balances, high transaction costs or full share quantities. Today, DriveWealth provides this innovative investing technology and its own customizable suite of application programming interfaces (APIs) to partners all over the world, allowing investors everywhere to gain access to the highly stable, liquid and regulated U.S. stock market with a fully accessible, straightforward user experience.