It has now been operating for nine weeks, and now has 4500 investors.

Sharesies allows people with a minimum of $5 to invest to put their money into Smartshares exchange-traded funds.

Founder Brooke Anderson said Sharesies was a wealth development platform, not a wealth management one. Too many New Zealanders were priced out of investing, she said. "We want all New Zealanders to know investing is an option for them. That's why we created Sharesies... at the moment financial advice is only available in the wealth management space, people with $1 million to invest, or maybe $250,000."

Sharesies would look to develop its range of investment offers, including unlisted options, sustainable investments, mutual funds and individual shares, she said.

It would also aim to build its advice component. "Whether that stays as class advice or moves into robo, who knows? It depends what the FMA lands on in October."

She said there was a need for more education and guidance in the market.  Most people did not see a financial adviser, she said, but instead relied on friends and family members they thought were savvy with money.

Sharesies was interested in how it could help people get "tips and tricks" from each other, she said, and remove taboos around money so that people could talk about the strategies they used. "There is a need for advice but where that comes from or how it works it to be confirmed at this stage."

The Sharesies team  had considered the option of becoming a roboadvice provider. Anderson said the best advice would be personalised but most robo offers internationally lumped people together. 

"You see most people get clustered into a bucket. We want to be able to change that. We'd love to create a platform so people know their money is invested in the smartest way positive based on their own particular behaviour, beliefs and goals. Whether that's robo or robo plus a human remains to be seen."

Sharesies charges an annual subscription of $30, for an unlimited number of trades.  The platform gets a distribution rebate from the product providers, and earns interest on any money left sitting in Sharesies' clients' online accounts.

It currently has $1.3 million under management.  "We're not competing against money that would otherwise be saved or invested. We're competing against consumerism. We wanted to make it as fun as doing online shopping," Anderson said,