Seaglass Cloud Technology, an end-to-end, software-as-a-service (SaaS) provider to the energy sector, has developed a scalable and future-proof, full-service customer management system for Omni Energy, helping it to provide a responsive and highly-efficient service to domestic pay-as-you-go (PAYG) energy customers.

Omni Energy specialises in the PAYG market, where consumers top up energy via Omni’s app, online portal or physical card or key – a market it believes is under-served within the energy supply industry.

“These customers are perceived as too complex, and do not get offered forward-thinking products or account management,” says Gary Bartlett, CEO at Omni Energy. “Our sole purpose is to make pre-payment better.” 

Seaglass’ end-to-end, cloud-based solution includes automated SaaS systems that streamline customer risk calculations, data migration, onboarding, supplier switching, customer communications and billing.

As a cloud-native business, the Seaglass system is innately configurable and includes system updates resulting from regulatory changes as part of its standard offering. It is helping Omni Energy, for example, in offering its customers faster and more reliable switching in line with Ofgem’s Switching Programme.

Charlie Hewson, Omni’s Operations Director,  says the Seaglass system allows them to more efficiently serve customers: “When a customer calls us, all of their details are at our fingertips – their meter readings, when they last topped up, how much energy they used, etc. That enables us to deliver the correct action for our customers – at the right time.

“For all honest consumers it provides the ‘wow’ factor in customer service, and for anyone trying to game the system – our access to live data makes it much more difficult.”

Omni Energy opted for the Seaglass system following a demonstration of its capabilities: “It was clear that it was in a league of its own,” adds Gary. “Because it is scalable and future-proof in its nature, it will grow as we grow – enabling us to easily add new services for more customers. Whereas other systems have just a three-year lifecycle before the need to upgrade to accommodate industry changes such as the coming mandatory half hourly settlement, with Seaglass the functionality is already built in.”

Gary concludes that the system ticks the required boxes: “Its forecasting and risk management capabilities also set it apart, enabling us to intelligently predict energy usage and interact with the market.

Alex Troth, Commercial Director at Seaglass Cloud Technology, says the business builds systems in partnership with its customers: “Ultimately it has been built to help Omni Energy deliver the same or better service to PAYG customers that other energy consumers enjoy. At the same time being easy to implement, reducing the cost to serve and enabling Omni to take on more customers while managing the risk of doing so.”

~ Shares.io today announces the next stage of its journey to deliver “investing made social” as waitlists open for UK launch in Autumn, expected Europe-wide early 2022 ~ 

~ One of Europe’s largest-ever seed rounds, $10 Million USD pre-product and previously unannounced funding also revealed, to build social-first consumer app with no-minimum, no-fees access to 1,500 stocks ~ 

~ Serial entrepreneur, CEO & Co-Founder Benjamin Chemla, with Shares’ team of Founding and Scaleup Veterans, pioneer a whole new investing app category to challenge the fast-growing fintech space ~

 ~ VC backers include Singular (lead investor) and Peter Thiel’s Valar Ventures, early investor in Fintech Unicorns N26, Wise, and Bitpanda. Strategic advisors include a Co-Founder of Freetrade, ex C-Suite Exec of Société Générale and early stage veteran of Uber ~

Shares.io today announces the next stage of its journey to deliver “investing made social” and invites subscribers to join the waitlist for the Autumn launch of the Shares app in the United Kingdom, anticipating delivery across Europe in early 2022. Shares, the consumer mobile app and social-first platform for retail investors, designed from the ground up with user experience and community in mind, gives no-minimum, no-fees access to 1,500 stocks. Waitlist is now open to subscribers, who will be the first to access Shares on day one of launch.

Founded early 2021, Shares has already achieved one of the largest-ever seed fundraises by an early stage startup in Europe, raising $10 Million USD in the first, pre-product seed round alone. Key VC & Angel support vindicates Shares will quickly become a category winner led by CEO & Co-Founder Benjamin Chemla, serial entrepreneur with a track record that includes co-founding Stuart in 2015. Six years later, Stuart is the European leader in last-mile logistics, continues its rapid growth trajectory and employs more than 600 people. 

The Shares Co-Founders and Benjamin, CEO have quickly assembled 35 experienced scaleup veterans to-date, ready to launch Europe’s first fully integrated social and investing app in less than a year. In addition to accelerated product development, Shares will quickly go-to-market in a highly regulated industry and comply with requirements that include KYC, AML and MAR. The startup will use its recent fundraise to continue to scale at pace on a mission to empower users with tools that open doors to first-time investors and increase financial inclusion.

Shares is creating a whole new investing app category where anyone, including new investors can start conversations, network and learn from friends and experts as a community - together in a one-stop shop with all their portfolio management needs. Shares becomes a market-leading app with low barriers to entry, including access to invest from £1.00 GBP - and no trade fees - across 1,500 US stocks. The Shares app will truly democratise investing with a serious finance platform that inspires confidence for any user to build their own successful portfolio.

Designed to be social-first, Shares combines the functionality of a consumer investment app with the wisdom of online forums, where members can buy stocks, react to the market in real-time, start conversations with friends and access curated expert advice in one place. In addition to the Invest platform, Shares enables community and private Chat to network, learn, track friends and grow individual portfolios (as well as make Group stock indexes with Friends) from the app. Additionally, Shares’ curated market intelligence feed, Spotlight, allows Shares members to build their financial awareness and educate themselves about investing, the biggest industry trends and offer supportive guides on tax, regulation and compliance.

Benjamin Chemla, CEO & Co-Founder of Shares describes the product as an “entirely new category of fintech investing platform that resonates with today’s investors. We founded Shares, ‘investing made social’ for investors who prioritise user experience and community first, and also expect a serious platform to build their portfolio.” He added: “Building Shares wouldn’t have been possible without the seasoned team of scaleup experts we’ve assembled across the business to achieve this product, in record time, without sacrificing quality. There is still untapped market opportunity in this high-growth fintech space and Shares is uniquely positioned as Europe’s first social and investing app to fast become a leader in the industry.” 

Shares has grown quickly since being founded earlier this year by winning early VC & Angel investor backing plus a slate of top-tier business advisors. The first seed round raised $10 Million USD, pre-product from Singular, Valar Ventures, André Mohamed, Co-Founder of Freetrade and others who share the view of the market opportunity for a unified platform that combines investing, social and expert advice into one app. Shares is a proudly international and fast growing team of 35 today, representing 10 nationalities based across three offices in Paris, London and Krakow so far. Talent has been drawn from leading scaleups including Revolut, Stuart, Bumble, and FreeNow with diverse expertise applied to build the one-of-a-kind Shares app. 

James Fitzgerald, Founding Partner at Valar Ventures and VC supporter of Shares said: “Valar invested in the team at Shares with confidence in their ability to overcome the technical challenges and execute the project in a matter of months to get to market. Congratulations to Shares for executing the launch of Europe's first social-focused investing app - a feat of engineering, finance and regulatory know-how.”

André Mohamed, Co-Founder of Freetrade applauds the vision, adding: “Shares is completely different to first-generation fintech investing platforms and social - notoriously complex - has been exquisitely built into the app. By packaging what everyday traders do online into one platform, Shares is going to revolutionise how social is used for support and guidance - that’s taken to the next level with this app launch - not to mention the product roadmap ahead.”

Shares’ VC & Angel investors include Singular (lead investor), Valar Ventures, Global Founders Capital and Red Sea Ventures to date. André Mohamed, Co-Founder of Freetrade, Didier Valet, ex Deputy CEO of Société Générale, Chris Adelbach, Managing Partner of Outrun Ventures & UKBAA Angel Investor of the Year, and Ryan McKillen, Founding Team of Uber are currently business advisors.

Shares.io welcomes all traders, from market influencers, to experienced and first-time investors to a completely new way to invest, learn and build community - join the waitlist. Watch for Shares’ Autumn launch in the UK, to be made available in the Apple and Google app stores. Shares expects full roll-out across Europe in early 2022.

·       Open Banking technology could reduce processing times on borrowing applications by 85%, according to new research from Yolt Technology Services (YTS)  

·       Innovation could replace average two-week wait times from application to payment by cutting out application bottlenecks  

Lenders could see the time they spend processing the average loan reduce by more than 85% with the adoption of Open Banking technology, according to research from Yolt Technology Services (YTS), one of Europe’s leading Open Banking providers¹. 

At present, lenders process an average of 6,258 loans a year, with each single loan taking 3.5 hours for the business to process. Over the course of a year, the average lender will invest £530,053 into loan processing, accounting for staff time and administration costs. From initial application to payment, this takes an average of 16 days, largely due to bottlenecks caused by applicants as they assemble the necessary proof to complete the process.  

However, the adoption of Open Banking technology could significantly reduce these stressors on the efficiency of lenders. Using Account Information Services (AIS), manual processes requiring applicants to provide information such as complex, unstructured income and expenditure data are no longer necessary, which could see the current 16-day wait-time evolve into a process of mere minutes. YTS, for instance, offers customers its Cashflow Analyser tool, giving credit underwriters deeper insights into the cashflow of credit applicants and customers to streamline and simplify affordability assessment processes.  

At the same time, Open Banking allows lenders to cut out manual verifications, reduce costs and offer an instant credit decision with fewer human errors. With these innovations, lenders can save approximately 18,000 work-hours annually². 

“Both lenders and applicants want a frictionless process from application to decision to payment, however the current system that requires the manual intervention by both parties is both inefficient and frustrating. Through the power of open banking, relevant data is automatically uploaded and processed, saving time for both parties and reducing the risk of decisions made in error”, says Jack Tenwick, Head of UK Sales, YTS. “For lender businesses, this means that not only can they offer a superior customer experience but that their own capacity for growth is greatly increased. As we anticipate a greater number of businesses looking to invest in potential growth as we emerge from Covid, this will allow lenders to meet that demand and remain competitive.” 

TotallyMoney, the credit app built to help people move their money forwards and achieve their financial goals, is excited to announce the appointment of Liz Afolabi as its People Director. 

• Liz joins from People & Culture consultancy Unleashed, where she supported a number of high-growth startups to create thriving businesses and great places to work 
• TotallyMoney is Best Companies’ fifth best place in financial services to work, with a three-star accreditation that reflects 'world class' levels of workplace engagement
• With Liz’s appointment, TotallyMoney aims to supercharge its hiring plans, aiming to grow the team by 19% in 2021

The fintech continues to scale as it approaches four million customers, and has a focus on continuing to attract the very best people to further develop its award-winning app.

Moving TotallyMoney forwards

Based in London’s Old Street tech hub, TotallyMoney is building a product that genuinely helps its customers improve their finances. The company believes this is only possible with a great culture and an engaged, ambitious workforce. 

TotallyMoney has almost four million customers and is rated as 4.6/5 on Trustpilot – making it the UK’s top-rated credit report provider. Its service has also been recognised by the industry, crowned Best Credit Report Provider by Moneynet four years running.

The company aims to be one of the best places to work in the UK. It was ranked as the 34th best mid-sized company to work for by Best Companies, as well the fifth best in finance across the UK, and is officially a world-class company to work for.

The 2021 Best Companies survey found that 95% of TotallyMoney’s staff agreed that they “loved working for this organisation” and 92% agreed that “this job is good for my own personal growth”.

From Unleashed, to TotallyMoney

Liz Afolabi joins TotallyMoney’s management team from Unleashed, where she spent two and a half years building productive, engaged and high-performing teams for a number of UK and international businesses.

Many companies have benefitted from Liz’s experience, knowledge and skills, including Suvera, SimplyCook, Columbia Lake Partners, Healthily and Decoded. Additionally, Liz has coached leaders and founders on how to effectively develop, mentor & motivate high-performing teams. 

Liz is an ICF certified Leadership & Personal Coach, has a qualification as a Mental Health First Aider, and is currently studying towards a postgraduate degree in Coaching.

Liz’s key responsibilities will include TotallyMoney’s People strategy and all aspects of the employee experience, helping the business on its goal to be the best place to work.

On her appointment as People Director at TotallyMoney, Liz Afolabi said: 

“I’m delighted and excited to be joining TotallyMoney and to be working with such a wonderful and award-winning team. 

“TotallyMoney’s mission to help people move their money forwards so they can achieve their financial goals really resonates, and I’m looking forward to enabling the team — so they can support even more customers as the business embarks on this exciting phase of growth.”

TotallyMoney CEO, Alastair Douglas, comments: 

“I’m delighted that Liz is joining TotallyMoney as People Director as we supercharge our hiring and growth plans for the rest of 2021 and into 2022. It comes at a very exciting time, following our recent 3 Star accreditation from Best Companies.

“I fully believe that building a great product for our customers starts with having a world-class working culture and employee engagement. I believe Liz is the person to achieve even better things for us going forward.

“We are eager to see how Liz makes the role her own and excited to see the impact she has on our mission to help our customers move their money forwards.”

Images: here 

• Significant development in Net interest margin with March 2021 run rate at 114bps (March 2020: 10bps).  This momentum has continued post year end with NIM of 130bps in June 2021 
• Credit risk performance remained strong despite the impact of Covid
• Losses narrowed to an underlying operating loss of £36m with strong momentum to monthly break even during 2022, with a first month of operating profit recorded in June 2021 
• A focus on supporting SMEs through the Covid pandemic saw business lending increase from £240m to £662m. Atom is on track to have provided £1bn in lending to SMEs by September 2021

Atom bank, the North East fintech, has reported strong progress in its latest annual report, narrowing its losses and generating a monthly net interest margin (NIM) of 114bps by March 2021 (up from 10bps in March of 2020).  NIM continues to increase, reaching 130bps in June 2021. This progress strengthens Atom’s confidence that it will be generating sustainable month-on-month operating profit later this year.

Losses continued to shrink for the full year to 31^st March 2021, to an underlying operating loss of £36m (2020: £46m) and statutory loss before other charges of £49m (2020: £57m). As seen in Atom’s Q1 trading update (to 30^th June 2021), strong cost control and an improving credit outlook together with a one-off gain from its liquid asset portfolio allowed Atom to record a monthly operating profit in June, further adding to this positive momentum.

The momentum since March 2020 has been underpinned by a number of initiatives, with Atom diversifying its savings range by introducing its Instant Access Saver, completing its largest mortgage securitisation transaction to date (£0.8bn), and placing a strong focus on business lending which saw balances grow from £240m to £662m. Atom was also accredited as a CBILS lender in 2020, ensuring that it continued its support for UK businesses when it was needed most. The bank is on track to have provided £1bn in total lending to SMEs by September 2021.

Continuing the focus on delivering an excellent customer experience, the bank has successfully commissioned its new banking technology stack. Atom partnered with Thought Machine to deliver Vault, a cloud native and smart contract based banking core, which was used to launch Atom’s Instant Access Saver, now with over £1bn of customer savings balances. All savings accounts and balances were successfully migrated to the new platform, and Atom has made important improvements to its banking apps, enhancing both their speed and usability.

Atom continues to be one of the highest ranked UK banks by providing fast, transparent and good value customer experiences, with a Trustpilot rating of 4.6, and a Net Promoter Score of +76.

 Mark Mullen, Chief Executive Officer at Atom, said:

“Throughout 2020 we served our customers with simple, transparent and competitively priced products and a first class customer experience.

“We continue to believe that the established banking model is well past its sell-by date. Too often it frustrates customers, antagonises regulators, disappoints investors and disengages employees.  Why accept adequate when excellence is available?

“Atom has momentum, in recent years we have invested significantly in the business and now we’re seeing the results. Our losses are shrinking and we achieved our first monthly operating profit in June of 2021.  We’re confident that we will deliver sustainable profitability in the weeks and months ahead as we continue our journey to IPO”. 

AI Week takes place from October-5 to October-8, featuring industry leaders showcasing best practices in AI implementation and a series of hands-on workshops and success cases

Squirro, the Augmented Intelligence solutions provider, has announced the launch of its inaugural AI Week 2021, a virtual event designed to showcase AI best practices and provide interactive masterclasses that enable Financial Services (FS) leaders to get more from AI and Machine Learning (ML). 

AI Week 2021 takes place between 5-October and 8-October and is split into two parts. On the 5th and 6th of October, speakers from international organisations, including Standard Chartered Bank, Bank of England and Armacell, will share their own AI implementation experiences and provide guidance on how to accelerate AI programs. Specific sessions include AI-Driven Banking Customer Service, Turn Your Data Investments into Revenue, and Visionary Women in AI.

Then, from 6-October to 8-October, a series of exclusive executive masterclasses will take place, all designed to enable business and IT executives in FS to get the most from AI and machine learning. A selected group of participants will benefit from hands-on workshops, led by Squirro AI experts, and live case studies from world-leading FS organisations to learn and understand how to maximise outputs with AI in their organisation.

“AI is fueling lightspeed transformation across financial services; revolutionising business strategy, development, and growth,” said Dorian Selz, CEO, Squirro. “AI Week 2021 brings together c-suite speakers of the highest calibre to share best practice expertise gained from their own AI journeys and provides attendees with the chance to understand how best to use AI themselves. Executive masterclass participants will gain the skills necessary to identify opportunities for data science in their business and learn about the tools to prioritise and successfully execute on those opportunities.”

The executive masterclasses at AI Week 2021 will provide business and IT leaders within FS with a range of skills to improve decision-making, extract greater customer insight, and apply AI to challenges within the business. Presented by business and IT leaders, together with Squirro experts vastly experienced in AI rollouts and techniques, the sessions are available across three regions - APAC, Europe, and North America – and will be tailored to specific information provided by the approved applicants beforehand.

"AI and ML provide opportunities across industries and departments, and can make a vast and tangible impact on any FS organisation,” continued Dorian Selz, Squirro. “Our masterclasses will provide leaders with insights about best-in-class strategies and guidelines about how to successfully implement  AI and ML for the business.”

Registrations for AI Week 2021 are open here, while those interested in participating in the executive masterclasses can apply here. 

The international Forex broker OctaFX turns ten years old. This past decade culminates in 6.6 million Forex trading accounts opened, 200,000 Trade &Win gifts delivered, over 102,000 followers on social media, 44 Forex industry awards received, providing services in more than 100 countries, and 500 million trades executed on the platform since inception—to just name a few company achievements to date.

To pay homage to this special anniversary, the fintech company recalls the ten most prevalent Forex occurrences of the past decade for all the history enthusiasts out there.

Trend-defining events rarely occur as isolated affairs, touching upon Forex alone—they naturally encompass and impact the vast financial world as a whole.

The following list shows an engaging view of the last decade from OctaFX's very own perspective. 

The 'Flash Crash of 2010'

Around a year before OctaFX's inception, an event took place which came to be known as the 'Flash crash of 2010'. On 6 May, in a matter of mere moments, the stock market suffered a steep downfall leading to a loss that ranged around 1 trillion USD, before recovering again in the days that followed. The stock market's fall and swift recovery, in turn, tremendously impacted Forex market confidence in the world reserve currency.

2012's initial public offering of Facebook

No initial public offering (IPO) of any company has captured the industry's attention and the public's imagination quite as much as Facebook's IPO has in 2012. On 18 May of that year, the social network's IPO shares were valued at 38 USD, boosting a volume exceeding 16 billion USD and making it the heftiest tech IPO in history up to that point. As of July 2021, a Facebook share hovers at a value of 341 USD.

BREXIT 2016 (including the 2016 flash crash of the GBPUSD pair)

Now common knowledge, but when in June 2016, the results of the Brexit vote first came in, it caused utter panic in the European Union, the Western world, and in Great Britain itself. Most observers assumed that the British people would decide to remain in the European Union. The British pound sterling moved in an upswing trend right before the results of the vote were announced, but the currency pair GBPUSD ended up closing down 8% on that day.

Oil prices collapse in 2016

Crude oil prices traded between 75 USD and 115 USD per barrel for most of the first half of the 2010s. This extensive era of high prices led to a booming shale oil production and an outright revolution of U.S. fracking technology. The U.S. almost doubled its oil production in 2014 (compared to 2008), prompting a severe supply flood. West Texas Intermediate (WTI) prices in crude oil fell almost as low as 26 USD per barrel in 2016. This turned into a persistent trend, as oil stocks continued to have a rough time in the second half of the last decade. 

The Trump phenomenon

Donald J. Trump won the 2016 U.S. election against Democrat candidate and former U.S. secretary of state, Hillary R. Clinton. This in itself was a great shock for the worldwide political landscape and engraved itself on the financial sector as well. Among the Trump administration's most impactful moves would have to be legislation that in 2017 has led to 1.5 trillion USD in tax cuts which stimulated domestic corporate profits by over 16% a year later.

The Twitter presidency, or how everybody learned to love Trump tweets

OctaFX felt that president Donald Trump's sometimes erratic Twitter account deserved a separate mention. The former president often decided to publish his take on the most pressing issues like the Iran nuclear deal, relations with North Korea, Syria, and the Middle East as a whole⁠—usually, catching most by surprise. Doing politics via the American microblogging network added to Trump's unpredictable political persona, influencing the sentiments of the financial markets considerably.

Plummeting USDJPY and AUDUSD pairs in 2019 (flash crash)

In January of that year, an official statement by Apple is believed to have brought about the flash crash. The tech giant emphasised a struggling Chinese economy that consequently drew traders to sell out of more volatile currencies, among them, the Australian dollar. Many jumped on the Japanese yen, as well, which often happens when confidence in the Chinese economy fluctuates, and with it, its most significant trading partner, the Australian government.

Whoever had the right analytical outlook and strategic assessment in the professional trading community could bank on the consequences of this 'flash crash'.

Joe Biden's ascendency to the U.S. presidency

Amidst the biggest virus pandemic, Donald Trump as the sitting president, eager for reelection, lost to his Democratic challenger. After much controversy and political drama, which saw fervent uncertainty in society and the markets, Joe Biden won the election with a new record of becoming the first presidential candidate to gather more than 80 million votes.

Crypto's March 2020 'Black Swan Event'

As the mother of all cryptocurrencies, Bitcoin falls to almost 3,500 USD per coin, losing around 80% of its value from its previous all-time high of close to 20,000 USD (December 2017). Ethereum likewise dips to 86 USD after having reached an all-time high of almost 1,500 USD, taking down with it the entirety of the altcoin market. Only a few could have suspected that the beginning of the most extensive bull run in crypto history yet was just a few more months off. Experts unanimously consider the coronavirus crisis to be the leading cause of this crash.

The Coronavirus crisis, 2020–present day

Last but surely not least, and probably most important of them all—the worldwide pandemic that changed and keeps changing the world. Much has been written about how the COVID-19 pandemic and the political and economic measures that followed have impacted legacy finances, especially the fluctuating confidence in the U.S. dollar as the world reserve currency.

OctaFX hopes you liked its picks. By no means does it represent a complete list of trends, so if the fintech company missed any significant events or trends, it sure will include them in a future publication.

Leading LendTech provider DivideBuy has announced its new strategic partnership with premium hair styling tools retailer CLOUD NINE. The collaboration, which will see DivideBuy offer its interest free credit solutions to CLOUD NINE customers, aims to increase the accessibility of CLOUD NINE’s product range for its growing clientele base.

Founded in 2009, CLOUD NINE is an award-winning retailer and Official Hair Care Partner of this year’s Love Island series, and has opted to work with DivideBuy, who topped the Deloitte Fast 50 list in 2020, to make its premium products available to more customers as it grows its market share. The partnership will offer a financially responsible payment option that will help to make purchases more affordable and drive increased revenue opportunities.

High-quality styling tools are often seen as vital products, with many owners using them daily. For many people, the premium range of these award-winning products are extremely desirable, with CLOUD NINE’s range offering a huge variety of features for owners. By working with DivideBuy, CLOUD NINE will be able to offer four times longer payment terms when compared to many credit providers, giving consumers up to a year to spread their payments and making purchases from CLOUD NINE’s range even more convenient and affordable.

At the same time, retailers like CLOUD NINE can offer their premium products to a wider range of customers without any extra credit risk, with DivideBuy providing both the lending platform and the credit to the customer. This means retailers such as CLOUD NINE can expand their payment choice at the POS, and benefit from faster customer approval and onboarding, as well as data insights that can be used to influence targeted offers and loyalty bonuses. Interest free credit is proving to be a big hit with millennial consumers, with 54% of UK consumers in this age bracket using it as an easy and convenient payment option, in comparison to credit cards that charge interest and higher fees.

James Bradley, Business Development Director for DivideBuy, commented: “CLOUD NINE has already experienced strong success in the hair and beauty sector and, following the recent product placement deal with Love Island, has ambitious plans to capitalise on its brand awareness over the next 12 months. Interest free credit is enjoying rapid uptake among retailers and consumers alike, attracted by its flexibility that spreads out payments in an affordable way. Just in 2020, over 10 million UK consumers used interest free credit to make purchases. DivideBuy’s flexible payments solution is perfectly placed to offer a seamless payment option for CLOUD NINE’s customers, who had more disposable income to invest in themselves during lockdown.”

Nicki Milner of CLOUD NINE added “We want to make our products accessible to as many customers as possible and our strategic partnership with DivideBuy allows us to provide a higher level of payment flexibility, something that is of critical importance for consumers in the current economic climate. These benefits, along with the speed and simplicity of the process is what attracted us to DivideBuy, and we’re thrilled to have them on board to support our future growth.”

CLOUD NINE will join a list of diverse retailers working with DivideBuy to provide customers with payment instalment options. 2021 is set to be DivideBuy’s most successful year to date, having onboarded nearly 30 new retail partners already in just the first seven months of the year, including the leading premium homeware brand Simba Mattresses.

James Bradley concluded; “Over the past 18 months we’ve witnessed a seismic shift in the retail landscape. Bolstered by the changes in payment behaviour resulting from the pandemic, consumers are increasingly looking for more convenience and control in the way they browse, order and pay for their goods. Whether it’s used to buy high-end large-value items like styling appliances, home furnishings or tech gadgets, interest free credit is creating a real service differentiation for retailers that is attracting more customers. It’s a win-win situation for consumers and businesses alike.”

Dreams is a provider of behavioural and engagement banking solutions, which is powered by cognitive science, and helps some of the world’s largest financial institutions engage critical new target audiences and increase loyalty, by boosting their customers’ financial health and empowering them to save and feel better about their money. Dreams initially launched as a consumer app, which is live in the Nordics, and currently the top-rated app of its category across all app stores in its native Sweden, where it has helped over 460,000 users save over 440 million EUR to date.

Through the integration within a bank’s own digital tools of the Dreams Platform, customers can set and achieve money-saving goals through clever, automated saving features, in addition to nudges and saving hacks and the option to invest through mutual funds. Users can also utilise the platform’s ability to consolidate loans for more efficient payment towards credit card debts, in addition to bespoke insurance offers, providing customers with the necessary asset and debt management skills to live more sustainably. In turn, banks can leverage Dreams’ B2B2C offering, its methodology and behavioural science concepts to engage and cater to the needs of new, underserved target audiences, and ensure their solutions stay relevant in the era of digitisation and challenger banks.

Initially launched as a money-saving app in Sweden in 2016, and then in Norway in 2018, Dreams has achieved a 16% market share of all 20-39 year olds in both countries, in just under 4 years. In 2020, Dreams announced two strategic partnerships with banking software provider Silverlake Symmetri, and Ukrainian commercial bank UKRSIBBANK, marking an expansion of the company’s business model into the B2B space, as it evolves its services as a provider of digital banking solutions for financial institutions. To support this strategic shift, Dreams also recently unveiled a new department in Stockholm dedicated to the development of its B2B partnerships.

How the Dreams platform works:

Dreams leverages an effective and universal method, based on behavioural science, to offer users a personalised and engaging savings experience. Through the Dreams platform, users, rather than the bank, are in control of how they handle their money and what they save for.

Once customers open their new ‘Dreams’ savings account, they can then set a ‘dream’ or saving goals, and choose to activate multiple saving hacks. 

The saving hacks are powered by different algorithms which leverage certain behavioural science principles and gamification to challenge users to improve their financial lives and change their spending habits for the better. Through these innovative hacks, users can benefit from automatic and seamless transfers of money from their current account to their ‘Dreams’ savings accounts. Altogether, there are 16 localised saving hacks to choose from. The two most popular hacks include:

• ‘The Thief’ - the in-app thief ‘steals’ varying, small amounts each week from the user’s salary account and adds it to their ‘Dreams’ savings account.

• ‘Autopilot’ - automatically calculates and withdraws from the user’s bank account the amounts necessary for them to reach their dream on time, taking into consideration other saving hacks activated and manual savings made by the user. If no other hacks are activated, automatic withdrawals are made on a weekly basis. 

The rest of the saving hacks are rooted in behavioural change, inciting users to save money by changing their lifestyle and implementing more sustainable consumption and spending habits. These include “Quit Smoking”, “Skip Takeout Food” and “Exercise Outside”, to name a few. 

Beyond in-app savings, Dreams also offers asset and debt management products to enable users to allocate the money they have saved through the app towards debt repayments or fund investments.

Research Partnerships and Dreams Institute 

Dreams utilises collaborations with academia to design its products and methodology. This work is conducted in close partnership with the Dreams Institute, a separate entity founded to initiate relevant studies with some of the world’s top universities on matters relating to money, behavioural science, and personal finance management. Current research partners include academics from UCLA, University of Toronto, Stockholm School of Economics, University of Linköping, the Max Planck Institute, Stockholm Royal School of Technology, and Stockholm University. 

Dreams Institute is headed by its CEO, Elin Helander, a celebrated neuroscientist formerly working for the Karolinska Institute in Stockholm.