Interview with Sam Short, Co-Founder of Moneyed

Moneyed is an early-stage fintech startup that works with employers, as part of their wellbeing strategy, to promote financial wellbeing and enable employees to be their own financial adviser. 

The Moneyed app provides access to the financial tools, knowledge, and insights needed to be fully prepared for the future that have, until now, been locked away behind expensive paywalls with financial advisers.
 

 

How did you come up with the idea for the company?

 
Prior to starting Moneyed, I was working at Boston Consulting Group; they asked me how much I wanted to contribute to my pension and I had no idea. The question triggered me to start thinking about my finances – I looked for tech solutions to help me plan for the future – and found only budgeting apps. 

My only option was to speak to a financial adviser, which I couldn’t afford to do (and also didn’t have enough wealth for them to be interested in taking me on as a client). It turns out, unsurprisingly, I’m not the only person who falls into the financial advice gap. There are 19.8 million people in the UK who would benefit from financial advice, most of whom can’t afford financial advisers.

Employers also understand the impact of financial health on mental health – over 79% of companies have a wellbeing strategy. I soon realised that providing employees with the tools to be fully in control of their finances, not only benefited the employee but the employer, too. In addition to having a healthier, happier workforce, employers also benefit financially from wellbeing solutions: if an employee increases their pension contributions by only 1%, the employer saves enough money in National Insurance contributions to make the wellbeing initiative cost neutral. 

So, at the start of 2020, I convinced my friend, Phil Jones, who was working at a wealth management and financial advice firm at the time, to quit his job and start Moneyed with me!
 

How did the company fare through the pandemic?

 
Moneyed believe the best way to engage with people, and help them to plan for the future, is via their employer, as it enables us to bridge any gaps in financial knowledge and confidence. Prior to the pandemic, we were planning workshops and pilots with innovative tech companies; this was paused as company’s priorities shifted to helping their colleagues deal with the pandemic.

We used the pause in pilots during the pandemic as an opportunity to gain lots of feedback from our users and really enhance the functionality of our app. 

We’re also really keen to use data science and tech for social good, so tried to contribute to the pandemic response effort in any way we could. When mortgage payment holidays were announced, we soon realised there were no resources to help people understand how taking one impacted their future repayments. We quickly built a calculator that has been used by over 200,000 people to date and has been a vital sense check for people whose mortgage provider mis-quoted their new repayments.
 

What can we hope to see from Moneyed in the future?

 
We’ve launched in the App and Play stores, are working with some cool tech startups as part of their benefits and wellbeing initiatives, and are planning to raise our first round funding in the coming months. Once we’ve raised, we’re really looking forward to hiring a diverse and inclusive team, and will continue to build a product that closes the financial advice gap.

For more information visit: https://moneyed.co.uk/