Previously, fundamental data was only available to mobile users if they signed up for the expensive desktop offerings from Bloomberg or Thomson Reuters, which retail for tens of thousands of dollars.

In the last two decades, low-cost online options like Google or Yahoo! Finance have delivered similar information, but are often criticized for inaccurate or outdated data, difficult navigation, advertisements and limited free features.

“The public sources don’t have a strong interest in aggregating this information in a way that’s focused for financial advisors or investors,” Nasta says. “Their thought is that you’re already on a web browser, so go look for your own information. Since the information is free, they’ve discounted the value in aggregating and presenting it, so we’re left paying for a big, expensive terminal, or trying to find what we need via these siloed sources of content.”

Scout Finance’s aim, then, is to not only free advisors and investors from their dependency on a handful of financial reporting firms, but also to uproot them from their desktop computers.

While Scout can’t distill all of the information from the multiple monitors on a trading desk’s Bloomberg Terminal to an iPhone screen, it does provide the most essential fundamental equity information.

“The terminals from Bloomberg and Thomson aren’t going anywhere; they’re always going to be important for big firms,” Nasta says. “We’re not trying to replace them. For family offices, wealth managers and equities-driven individual investors who might not have access to the big terminals, though, this hits the spot. Our core market is financial advisors, no question.”

Scout Finance’s research application joins other mobile offerings, like the commission-free trading app Robinhood and the Alphabet-backed securities messaging app Symphony, in attempting to liberate investors from desktop computers.

“The financial services is the one market in the world that has not been disrupted by mobile technology. If you look at any other professional vertical, you’ll see a credible mobile solution associated with it,” Nasta says. “For some reason, in finance, where data is the most critical and mobility is the key, we don’t have these sorts of tools. We think it’s about time. It’s going to happen, and you’re going to see more products like this.”

For a limited time, the application can be downloaded for free from the App Store. A premium option giving users access to unlimited company data is available on a one-month trial basis, and investors have the option of continuing their premium subscription for $9.99 per month.

 

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