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InvestNow Review - Understanding the Offerings of the DIY Investment Platform

Updated 23 September 2026 
Summary of InvestNow
  • The Wellington-based platform offers investment into 150+ managed funds from 30+ well-regarded investment managers, with a platform fee of $0/year.
  • As of September 2026, the platform had around $4 billion in invested assets. 
  • Annual fund management fees (including performance fees) range from 0.03% to 2.13%, with many index funds offered.
  • Regular investments from $50 can be made into any fund, with many big names such as AMP, Fisher Funds, Milford Asset Management and Pathfinder making their funds available.
  • Children can also set up an InvestNow account, alongside an associated parent or guardian. 
  • Like Sharesies, Hatch, Stake, Superhero and Tiger Brokers, InvestNow is free to join and there are no membership fees. InvestNow offers a choice of funds unrivalled in New Zealand.​​
  • InvestNow also offers the InvestNow KiwiSaver Scheme, with 40+ managed funds from 15 expert investment managers to choose from, and no KiwiSaver member or administration fees.

Why do we like InvestNow? For many reasons:
  1. The 150+ fund choices, offering something for every investor type. 
  2. You won't pay any fees to InvestNow for using the platform. 
  3. InvestNow's market position allows it to attract exclusive funds for everyday investment - we see it as a win-win. 
  4. Ultimately, funds pay InvestNow to appear on the platform, but you don't pay anything extra, and going directly to a fund won't be cheaper regarding fund fees.
  5. Of course, InvestNow isn't for everyone, and you will need to know (or have a good idea) about what you want to invest in by doing your own research. We discuss this in more detail below.
InvestNow's Background
InvestNow launched in 2017 intending to offer Kiwis more options and greater transparency when it came to investing in managed funds. Since launching, the DIY-styled platform has grown to offer 150+ different funds operated by 30+ investment managers, investing locally and globally. InvestNow was one of the first online investment platforms of its kind in New Zealand, providing investors with access to a broad range of funds in one place.
 
Our Review
In this guide, we outline what InvestNow is, what funds they offer to the Kiwi investor and how InvestNow differs from other platforms. We also look at the fees involved in investing via InvestNow. Our guide covers:  
Please note: MoneyHub is not a Financial Adviser, and this guide has been published to explain the investment fundamentals and outline the pros and cons of InvestNow as an investment platform.​

Related Resources:
First Steps – What is an "index fund"?
  • An index fund is a type of investment that is established to invest in or track the components of a market index, such as the New Zealand NZX50 (our largest 50 companies) or the Standard & Poor's 500 Index (S&P 500).
  • An index fund provides diversity in risk, as your investment is spread over many companies within the index, typically proportioned by the size of each company's market value.
  • The index fund benefits from low operating expenses and management fees because the fund simply invests in the companies within the index, rather than paying a team of investment managers to research and pick individual investments.
  • An index fund aims to invest money no matter the state of the markets, so as markets overall go up your investment is worth more, and vice versa.
  • An index fund is different from many other managed funds, which have investment managers working to predict market movements and make investments on your behalf to add value to your portfolio.

InvestNow is our Favourite KiwiSaver Innovation in our 2026 Editor's Choice Awards:

Our view: InvestNow Kiwisaver gives DIY investors a choice of dozens of active and passive funds and opens access to exclusive managers who otherwise keep their funds away from KiwiSaver members. 

More details: InvestNow KiwiSaver Review

The Specs of InvestNow

  • Funds on offer: Currently, InvestNow offers 150+ funds from 30+ different fund managers. The funds include passive, cash-based investments (bank deposits, bonds and government debt), index funds (investing in specific sharemarkets, such as New Zealand’s NZX50 and the American S&P 500. There are also a number of actively managed funds with specific industries such as property, mining and emerging markets. 
  • Diversity: The number of funds on offer gives an individual investor a wide choice when it comes to deciding what to invest. At the same time, the choice could be overwhelming for a newbie investor. 
  • The InvestNow KiwiSaver Scheme: Launched in October 2020, the InvestNow KiwiSaver Scheme offers 40+ managed funds from 15 expert fund managers and no KiwiSaver administration fees. 

The fees are as followed: 
  • Annual fees for using InvestNow as a platform: $0
  • Minimum Initial Investment: $250 for all funds, or $50 with regularly scheduled contributions​
  • Fund fees:  ​All funds charge annual management fees, which ranges from as little as 0.03% to 2.13%
  • Performance fees: Some funds charge them, others don't. It should not be assumed that a fund will charge the same performance fee every year, as the future performance of the fund cannot be predicted.
  • Transaction fees: Some funds on InvestNow also feature transaction-based fees, which apply each time you buy and/or sell the fund. 

Investment Products include:
  • ‘Australasian Equities’ (41)
  • ‘Cash and Cash Equivalents’ (4)
  • ‘Commodities’ (2)
  • ‘Diversified’ (25)
  • Infrastructure (2)
  • ‘International Equities’ (55)
  • ‘International Fixed Interest’ (9)
  • ‘Listed property’ (10)
  • ‘New Zealand Fixed Interest and Credit’ (9)

​​If I buy a fund with InvestNow, am I buying a share on the sharemarket?
The majority of funds on InvestNow invest in shares, so you will get indirect exposure to the sharemarket through these types of funds. Usually, the investments are diversified across many different companies though, with the aim to protect the investor if and when one or two investments don’t work out.

Risk
  • The 150+ funds each offer a unique investment strategy. Some are low risk, some are medium risk and some are high risk. The returns/profit you make don’t necessarily depend on the risk you take, but generally the higher the risk taken with investments, the higher the potential reward. 
  • Not all funds are hedged to the New Zealand dollar. This means that if our dollar rises against any overseas currency and your fund is not hedged, the value of your investment reduces in NZD. You’ll need to check with the funds with regards to what (if any) hedging they have in place.​

Who is InvestNow Suited to?

  • ​​Best For: Investors looking for a value for money investment platform that doesn't carve off fees who also want their money with established and respected fund managers. The low minimum investment of $50-$250 makes the platform widely accessible, and the zero platform fees commitment means what you contribute is what you invest. 
  • Not suitable for: Certain investors looking to make individual investments in specific companies or industries, or investors looking to make a quick buck through short-term buying and selling. With most funds offered by InvestNow, the strategy is to be exposed to the longer-term rise of the local and/or global markets while being diversified enough to avoid losing money if one or two shares flounder.
  • Most suitable investor: Anyone looking to improve their understanding of capital market investing and can make regular contributions to build their investment portfolio over time. 

Standout Features:
  1. No account fees – this is the main draw to InvestNow. Other investment platforms charge establishment fees and/or annual fees; InvestNow does not. If you’re likely to invest in a number of funds, this could offer significant upfront and ongoing savings.
  2. Access to funds with some of the lowest annual management fees in the market. With funds featuring annual management fees starting from just 0.03%, InvestNow offers good value for money options for long-term investors looking to tailor a low-cost, diversified portfolio.
  3. You can access funds which usually require a high initial investment. For example, the Vanguard International Shares Select Exclusions Index Fund normally features a minimum initial investment of $750,000, while the Fisher Fund’s International Growth fund normally requires a minimum $2,000 initial investment. With InvestNow, you can get exposure to both of these funds with just $250 as a one-off investment, which makes funds like these increasingly accessible to smaller investors.
  4. Flexible ongoing investing from $50 is perfect for newbie investors looking to get into the sharemarket but not pay brokerage fees on individual trades. As the funds invest in shares, this offers exposure to local and global markets. 
  5. The 150+ funds offer a lot of diversity, but managed funds range so it’s important to be comfortable with what you’re investing in and making sure it represents value for money.
  6. The diverse number of funds means you can focus on particular industry sectors in specific countries, such as Australian property, New Zealand property and global emerging markets. 
  7. InvestNow also offer Term Deposits from a selection of 5 banks including ANZ, Bank of China, BNZ, Heartland Bank and SBS Bank. 
  8. InvestNow offers monthly fund performance reports. The reporting shows the top-performing funds across a range of time periods. InvestNow also recently implemented the Morningstar performance tool in their investor site – investors can easily view and compare the full historical performance of all funds offered by InvestNow. 

But be aware:
  1. As a self-direct investment platform, you’ll need to do your own research before deciding to invest into a particular fund. Each fund comes with a Product Disclosure Statement (PDS) which is great resource for all investors to learn more about a fund. InvestNow makes the latest PDS for all funds on its platform available on their website.
  2. Big institutional investment brands like AMP, ANZ and Fisher Funds, and Milford Asset Management make up a large portion of funds on offer.
  3. Some funds, particularly the Australian unit trust funds on InvestNow, require investors to complete tax returns for overseas earnings.
  4. Certain funds not marked as “sustainable” may make investments in companies trading in weapons, tobacco, nuclear and other “unethical” business.
  5. As is the case with any index fund or equities investment, markets can go up and down. The Dotcom bubble in the early 2000s sank global indexes, as did the 2008 Global Financial Crisis. All indexes are now at record highs, but this is no guarantee of future earnings.

Want to compare InvestNow with Sharesies, Hatch and other platforms? Read our Comparing Sharesies vs InvestNow vs Hatch and more guide. ​

Worried about what happens to your investments if InvestNow collapsed or shut down? Our easy to read custodian guide explains what you need to know. ​

Want to know how to trade or invest in the NZX? Our NZX in a Nutshell guide explains what you need to know. 

InvestNow’s Foundation Series Funds is our Favourite Vanguard Access in our 2026 Editor's Choice Awards:

Our view: The InvestNow Foundation Series brought Vanguard funds to New Zealanders at record-low fees and tax efficiency. For long-term investors, it delivers some of the highest after-fees-and-tax returns of any Vanguard option available locally. 

More details: InvestNow Review and How to Invest in the S&P500

InvestNow – What You Need to Know

Claims made by InvestNow:

“When selecting fund providers, we look for ones that are well-recognised in the industry and with extensive global or NZ experience. This ensures you can invest online with confidence”.

Is it True?
  • It's a subjective claim, but overall, the funds available offer diversity to a new investor.
  • InvestNow offers Smart, Vanguard, Fisher Funds, Milford Asset Management, among 30+ fund managers in total. This diversity is superior to platforms like Simplicity, Sharesies or Kernel, which have a limited number of managed funds in comparison.
  • It’s also worthwhile noting that InvestNow’s fund managers pay InvestNow to offer their funds on the platform, and make money every time someone picks their fund to invest in. 
 
“We firmly believe in removing all barriers to self-managing your investments, so InvestNow won’t be charging you any platform or admin fees.”

Is it True?
  • It’s true when it comes to using the platform – while whatever fund(s) you invest in will still charge you fund fees to manage your money, investors pay the same fund fees whether they access the fund through InvestNow or if they were to invest directly with the fund manager.
 
“We provide you ongoing market commentary and performance reports enabling you to manage your investments”.

Is it True?
  • Yes. The platform does provide fund performance statistics through its website as well as portfolio level performance reports when you log into your account.
  • Ongoing market commentary is also provided at least monthly, authored by one of the 30+ fund managers that are featured on the platform.
  • Each of the 150+ funds offered on the platform also provide regular reporting on the fund and its performance, if investors wanted to drill down into a specific offering. 

The Competition – InvestNow vs Smart and Simplicity

  • Hands down, InvestNow offers a lot more investment opportunities than Simplicity (10+ funds) and Smart (40+ ETFs).
  • There is some crossover – most of the major Smart ETFs are offered by InvestNow. However, InvestNow offers the ability to buy and sell Smart ETFs online each business day, whereas investing directly with Smart is limited to investments once a month and no redemptions.
  • Minimum contributions: To start a portfolio with InvestNow you'll need $250 (or $50 if you make regular contributions, i.e. weekly, monthly or up to six-monthly), while Smart is $500 and Simplicity features no minimums.
Want to compare InvestNow with Sharesies, Hatch and other platforms? Read our Comparing Sharesies vs InvestNow vs Hatch and more guide. ​

Worried about what happens to your investments if InvestNow collapsed or shut down? Our easy to read custodian guide explains what you need to know. 

​Want to know how to trade or invest in the NZX? Our NZX in a Nutshell guide explains what you need to know.

Want to understand managed funds and how to decide what to invest in? Our managed funds guide has you covered.
The Bottom Line
  1. InvestNow is an excellent initiative for new and/or small investors looking for affordable exposure to local and global sharemarkets without paying platform fees. With 150+ funds available, there is something for everyone’s risk profile.
  2. We like the ability to access funds that feature some of the lowest annual management fees in the market, starting from just 0.03%.
  3. The underlying investment funds offer diversity in the sharemarket (both in New Zealand and overseas).
  4. ​With regards to user experience, InvestNow offers secure passcode protection to make log in secure. From there, it’s easy to navigate, invest, sell investments and read performance reports.
  5. InvestNow may not appeal to everyone – if you’re fresh into investing, the vast number of funds may be overwhelming. To remedy this, we’d like to see InvestNow classify its investments into risk categories (low, medium, high etc) to better explain them to inexperienced investors.
  6. If you are an aggressive investor and want a fund manager to continuously pick shares and other securities, or simply after a low-cost index fund to invest into over the long-term, there are plenty of funds on InvestNow that do this and you can access them from $50-$250, which is often a big discount from the minimum buy-in if you went to the fund manager directly. This makes InvestNow a strong offering and gives it wide appeal for those looking to build their wealth.
Limitations
Most of InvestNow’s funds, like most managed funds, are not for the short term. While funds are typically free to buy and sell, to get the most out of the majority of managed funds you’re realistically looking at a 5-10 year investment horizon to navigate any volatility and capture long-term returns.
​
If you’re looking for funds investing in specific industries, such as oil and gas, agriculture or mining, the funds offered by InvestNow may not meet your needs. Most funds focus on diversified equity investments in Australasia, the USA and Europe. As such, you would need to find a specialist fund for such an investment.

10 Things to Know About InvestNow

InvestNow offers the InvestNow KiwiSaver Scheme

InvestNow offers the InvestNow KiwiSaver Scheme – A KiwiSaver Scheme that has 40+ managed funds from 15 expert investment managers and no KiwiSaver administration fees. You can mix and match from 1 fund up to 40+ funds. 

“Free Fees” does not extend to fund management and performance fees

Each investment manager will charge a management fee (the average across all InvestNow funds is 0.88%, however, this average is of the total fund charges by the fund managers, which includes management fees, admin costs and any performance fees) which is taken out of your investment. This means if the value of the shares your fund invests in go up 5% in one year, your return on investment would be 4% if the fund had a 1% management fee. “Free Fees” refers to the absence of any platform fees that InvestNow charges. 

Some funds offered are managed by the owners of InvestNow

InvestNow is owned by Apex Group. Some funds available on the platform, including the Foundation Series Funds, are managed by entities related to InvestNow. InvestNow offers a broad range of investment options from multiple fund managers and as a self-directed investment platform, investors are free to decide if they want to invest into any funds related to InvestNow.

InvestNow offers a wide range of investment managers and investment diversification opportunities

There is a huge range of funds, all offering different levels of risk and fees. For index funds, any investment means you’re putting money into a number of companies, so if one doesn’t perform as expected the strength of other companies will balance out the bad eggs. For example, the Smart NZ Top 50 ETF invests in the 50 largest New Zealand listed companies, offering diversification. Other funds invest in 500 or more companies, meaning you are well diversified.

You can make regular investments from $50

If you’d like to make regular contributions to savings outside of a KiwiSaver fund, InvestNow has relatively low entry points. Investors can invest into any fund from as little as $250 for a one-off investment, or as low as $50 if part of a regular investment plan. With no platform fee, we believe that InvestNow is very accessible and an affordable way to build up your chosen fund(s) at little marginal cost.

The performance of an InvestNow portfolio is transparent

Logging in to InvestNow displays your portfolio value for every fund invested in, updated daily. You’ll be able to see details like increases or decreases in value from the previous day as well as longer-term returns. It’s to be very accessible for beginner investors.

Dividends your fund(s) receive can be reinvested, meaning more cash is invested on your behalf

Many of the shares your fund invests in will pay dividends. These cash payments represent the profits from companies returning it to the shareholders, i.e. you. When a company declares a dividend, your fund will receive this money and either pay it out to you as an investor, or reinvest it back into the fund on your behalf. You’ll need to check with the specific fund to see their specific dividend policy. Reinvesting dividends is the best way to increase the value of your investment in the long term.

Signing up isn't complicated, but you’ll need to wait a couple of days before making your first investment

Making your initial investment with InvestNow is very straightforward, even for the most inexperienced investor. You’ll need to set up login access first, using an email and creating a password. After this, you’ll need to complete your registration by entering in personal details (tax, bank account numbers, financial disclosures and dividend preferences). You can then fund your account and once the money has cleared (usually occurring every weekday morning), you’ll be able to start investing.​

Children can join InvestNow too

If you want to start an investment for your children, InvestNow offers investments in any of their funds. You’ll only need a proof of ID – proof of address can be in the parent or guardian’s name.

Not all funds incorporate responsible considerations

InvestNow offers funds that explicitly incorporate responsible considerations, as well as funds that explicitly do not.

To what extent responsible considerations should be included within investments, is defined by the investor and what the investor considers to be ‘responsible’. For example, an investor may consider a fund that simply excludes investing in tobacco adequately responsible. But another investor might hold a higher view of Responsible Investing, for example, a fund that only includes investments that have a positive impact, such as renewable energy.

For more information on Responsible Investment, see Mindful Money’s website or our Responsible Investing: Explained article.

Our Conclusion

  • InvestNow is one of the first investment platforms to smash administration fees to $0 while breaking down the barriers to investing with affordable $50-$250 minimum thresholds. Funds previously unobtainable to most individuals are now able to be invested in for as little as $50.
  • The 150+ funds offer diversity and are backed by an online platform that delivers up to date portfolio data at no cost to the investor. Most funds are sufficiently diversified, so the risk of picking a single bad investment is reduced as each fund invests in a broad range of assets. 
  • InvestNow perhaps offers too many funds, which may confuse or intimidate newbie investors. However, for most people looking to make one-off or ongoing investments, the platform is a perfect choice to launch from.
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