Roku (NASDAQ:ROKU) and Upstart (NASDAQ:UPST) are growing quickly, and if you’re willing to invest for the long term, both of these growth stocks could supercharge your portfolio. Here’s what you should know about them.

1. Roku

Roku is the most popular streaming platform worldwide, capturing 30% of total viewing time in the first quarter of 2021. Its platform connects viewers with streaming content publishers like Netflix, allowing users to access all of their content from one location. This includes ad-supported content like The Roku Channel, the company’s own streaming service.

From there, Roku can monetize its business by selling digital ad space. Specifically, its OneView platform allows marketers to deliver targeted ad campaigns to viewers across mobile devices, desktops, and connected TVs (CTVs). It also provides tools to measure performance and optimize ad spend, something that’s not possible with traditional linear TV.

More importantly, Roku’s position as the leading streaming platform demonstrates a highly engaged user base. And in the marketing world, user engagement is a valuable asset. As a result, Roku captured 46% of all programmatic CTV ad spend in Q4 2020, crushing second-place Samsung and third-place Apple, which took 11% and 9% market share, respectively.

That dominance has translated into strong financial results on both the top and bottom lines.

To reinforce this strong growth, Roku is investing aggressively in The Roku Channel. For instance, it recently added new linear TV channels to its ad-supported streaming service, bringing the total to over 200 options. And in May, the company debuted 30 Roku Originals, making its first move into original content of its own.

I like this strategy. It helps Roku further differentiate itself, and these original series are already boosting engagement. In fact, the company reported record streaming activity during the two weeks following the launch of Roku Originals in May. If that momentum continues, brands should be banging down Roku’s door to get a piece of its platform.

Looking ahead, CTV ad spend is expected to hit $100 billion in the U.S. by 2030, according to BMO Capital Markets. That puts Roku in front of a massive market opportunity, and with its strong competitive position, this company appears to have a bright and profitable future. That’s why this growth stock looks like a rewarding long-term investment.

2. Upstart Holdings

Upstart is disrupting the consumer credit industry. Its platform uses artificial intelligence, rather than the outdated FICO score, to help lenders quantify risk and determine creditworthiness. At the same time, this business model benefits borrowers, creating a powerful network effect.

Specifically, banks benefit from greater approval rates, lower loss rates, and a highly automated lending process, and consumers benefit from greater access to credit and lower interest rates. How is this possible? Upstart’s AI models are powered by over 1,600 data points per consumer, trained against 10.5 million repayment events and counting. By comparison, a typical FICO score is based on just 20 data points. That gives Upstart a data-driven edge.

More importantly, that advantage should become evident over time. As Upstart adds new borrowers and measures more repayment events (e.g. on-time payments, late payments), its AI models should become increasingly good at predicting credit risk. That means lenders should see fewer defaults over time, furthering their ability to offer low interest rates to consumers.

This virtuous cycle has already been a significant growth driver for Upstart, as evidenced by the company’s strong financial performance over the past two-and-a-half years.

Looking ahead, Upstart is well-positioned to grow its business. Last year, the company expanded beyond the $84 billion personal loan market, entering the $635 billion auto loan industry. But management sees an opportunity to disrupt other verticals as well, including credit cards, mortgages, and student loans.

Here’s the bottom line: Upstart has a massive market opportunity, and its AI-powered business model appears to be more effective than traditional lending solutions. That’s why this growth stock looks like a smart long-term investment.

This article originally appeared on The Motley Fool.

The post 2 Smart Growth Stocks to Buy Right Now appeared first on Investment Market.

Before making the move of investing in any company, it is important to assess its financial health. Today, we are going to do just that for Snipp.

Founded in 2007, Snipp was making a loss in March 2018 but things sort of improved in a few month’s time. This gave investors and on-lookers a reason to rejoice.

From March 2018 to the last 12 months, Snipp’s debt rose to US $2.00M in near-term debt. However, with the rise in debt, SPN had $2.66M (US) outstanding in cash and short-run investments, which were ready to be deployed in business.

Short Term Liabilities

Snipp’s Ability To Pay Liabilities

What makes it an interesting choice to invest in Snipp is that it has the ability to pay its short-term liabilities. It has a current liability of US $6.71M but with an asset level of $6.90M (US), it leads to a 1.03x in its current account ratio. This was enough to assess and realize that the company can pay its short-term liabilities easily.

It also indicates that Snipp has a decent cash buffer and can work its way without leaving a lot of capital in low return investments.

Therefore, when answering the question of why you should invest in Snipp, this is a key point to consider.

A Long Term Choice

Snipp is a mobile marketing firm based in Canada. Though Snipp’s stock dropped more than usual and has been sluggish this year, Snipp Interactive is more of a long-term stock to buy than a short-term stock.

Stock patterns indicate that Snipp has had a rise in its stock volume and though its stock may seem a little bearish, things have still been positive if we compare it on a year-to-year basis.

Overall, if we look at the reasons as to why you should invest in Snipp, there are three key things to remember:

• Snipp has had continuous revenue increase and it has had a growing backlog of increasing orders
• The company has worked progressively on decreasing its costs especially salaries and compensation
• Snipp has also worked on reducing general and administrative costs

Snipp also reportedly had a rise in its % of revenue increase with recurring components. Furthermore, its margins increased significantly in 2017 and its campaign size has continued to grow.

Snipp Interactive has given some people to doubt its significance but, Snipp, on the whole, still makes a very viable choice of investment.

The post Why should you invest in Snipp? appeared first on Investment Market.