Tech' - The Opportunity: fintech for good

A dark, damp November evening this week, suddenly, stunningly shot through with the brightest of lights - that of possibility.

I was left high on adrenalin after attending Ascension’s Fair By Design Event where we heard from founders in this most fantastic of funds dedicated to eradicating the poverty premium in the UK.

We heard from the founders of four different platforms, all positively purposed and providing brilliant, innovative solutions to challenges faced by the low paid and financially excluded. The fund invests in different sectors, mainly fintech but also energy, transport and more.

Solutions we heard about ranged from the provision of fair finance for frontline workers, to a social networking site for workers, a transport solution that removes a barrier to work and a complete rethinking of credit scoring.

So much more in just sixty minutes of presentations. Presentations then followed by one hundred and twenty minutes of conversations, connections and potential collaborations. That’s the way to energize an event, that’s a network effect.

The first presentation was by Portman, founder of Wagestream, an employee app with four linked tools to improve financial health. Their tech connects with payroll and provides useful and information and insights to the individual worker. The four tools are pay and spend tracking, flexible pay, automated savings and financial coaching. One of the most phenomenal stats was related to the automated savings feature. They have 36% of users saving for the first time with Wagestream (compared to usual figure of 1-5% for take up of a saving product) 

Next up was Nat founder of Organise. A social networking for workers with 1.7 million users in the UK and their sights set on the US market. A standout feature of this design is that users are verified but anonymous. This allows you to identify and connect with other workers in your community (whether that be people in the same job or the same company) you can then organise without the risks sometimes associated with going public.

 Then Tatseng from RideTandem. Tatseng and follow founders had benefitted from an incubator initiative with Nationwide focused on helping people left behind by globalisation. When speaking to a group of dads in Rochdale they realised that the biggest barrier to jobs was transport. The dad's they spoke to didn’t have cars and the local bus service had been cut. Their solution, turn local transport providers into smart shuttles for work, education and more. 50% of their customers are B2B employers who use the service to provide transport to employees.

Finally, Robert Pasco of Plend. An FCA regulated company offering a fair credit system by rethinking credit scoring. Again, both the stats and the personal story were powerful and persuasive. The outdated and opaque method of credit scoring does not serve the 20+ million people (like Rob) who can’t get an affordable loan because of a poor credit score. Plend do it differently, using open banking and by providing a free service to other lenders in exchange for data. Their biggest use case is consolidated debt and they don’t use Govt data (an indictment of the state of Govt data that those in Govt should all think hard on).

When GMT returned last month we all gained an hour and lost some daylight. The time spent at the Fair By Design event last night was the most brilliant use of an hour and also felt bright with possibility, purpose and hope.

If, as was suggested last night that the 2000s were the decade of connection (think Facebook et al), the 2010s were the decade of convenience (Uber et al) then wouldn’t it be amazing if the 2020s turn out to be the decade of purpose. If it does, and I really hope it does, then I’m not sure which it will be but I wager one of the companies mentioned above could be the illustration of just what ‘purpose’ means.

 Tech’- The Opportunity. Tech’- The Difference. Tech’- For Good.