Equatic

We’re here to hammer the glass ceiling in investing — empowering women to take confident control of their financial future.

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EQUATIC

Our Inspiration

Throughout history, the global stock market has been predominantly represented through men. If women invested at the same rate as men, it would inject an estimated $3.22 trillion in additional assets under management into the global economy. But when looking into the reasons as to why women do not invest as much as men, it is shown that many have less confidence in financial knowledge and less support.

That's why Equatic was made to hammer the glass ceiling in financial literacy and investing by creating an application that was educational, simplistic, and easy to use.

Instead of building a traditional, intimidating finance app, we designed Equatic to feel approachable and user friendly to help first-time investors build confidence when entering the market.

At its core, Equatic is built on the belief that investing should not feel exclusive, it should feel accessible to everyone.

What We Learned

Throughout building Equatic, we learned how to:

  • Integrate multiple financial APIs into a unified experience (stocks, trading, and market data)
  • Design a user experience that balances education + execution (learning + trading in one flow)
  • Work with AI-driven features to create a responsive financial assistant
  • Structure a full-stack application using a modern mobile-first architecture. It was our first time using React Native!
  • Handle authentication, secure data flow, and backend API design at scale

We also learned that UX design is just as important as functionality, especially when your goal is to reduce intimidation in a complex space like investing.

How We Built It

Equatic is a full-stack mobile application built with a modern tech stack:

Frontend

  • React Native
  • OAuth authentication
  • Gemini AI integration for intelligent assistant features
  • Figma + Procreate for Clean, minimal UI catered towards beginner-friendly navigation

Backend

  • Express.js server
  • PostgreSQL database
  • Supabase

Financial APIs

  • Alpha Vantage API → real-time stock market data
  • Alpaca API → stock trading (buy/sell simulation + execution)

Core Features

Equatic is built around three main pillars:

1. Portfolio Dashboard (Home)

Users can view and manage their stock portfolio, track performance, and understand their investments at a glance.

2. Buy / Sell & Stock Overview (Market)

A simplified trading experience that allows users to explore stocks, learn about them, and execute trades in a guided environment.

3. Knowledge Hub (Learn)

A beginner-friendly learning space featuring:

  • Financial literacy tips
  • Investment vocabulary
  • Market insights
  • Statistics and educational cards
  • Interactive quizzes

AI Assistant

Powered by Google Gemini, the assistant helps users:

  • Understand investing concepts
  • Analyze stocks
  • Answer financial questions in real time
  • Build confidence in decision-making

Design & Visual Identity

Equatic casts a friendly and striking visual identity with our hammerhead shark mascot, Hammy, who acts as an AI assistant for new investors.

The reason we chose a hammerhead shark was because we were inspired by the idea of a hammerhead shark breaking through glass, symbolizing breaking barriers in investing and financial literacy.

This design language is intentionally non-intimidating and encouraging rather than overwhelming

Challenges We Faced

Building Equatic came with several challenges:

  • API Integration Complexity: Combining real-time stock data with trading APIs required careful orchestration between services.
  • Fintech Safety & Structure: Ensuring data consistency between Alpaca, Supabase, and our backend.
  • AI Prompt Engineering: Getting the Gemini assistant to respond in a helpful, beginner-friendly tone for financial topics.
  • UX Simplicity: Balancing complexity and user readability in order to make investing feel understandable for first-time users without oversimplifying core concepts.

Despite these challenges, we were able to build a cohesive system that brings education, trading, and AI guidance together in one platform.

Equatic's Future

The future of Equatic involves bringing it to a wider audience, making it even more accessible and easier to use.

We plan to improve our user interface and add cool transitions to improve user experience.

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