An Edinburgh fintech developing a data platform for financial services professionals has secured £500,000 in seed funding.
Visible Capital is FCA approved and will launch its product early next year with the backing of TechStart Ventures and eight private investors.
Preston Rabl, co-founder of the advertising giant WPP plc joins the board of Visible Capital, while Ian Steel, former senior partner of Deloitte in Scotland and Northern Ireland, and Iain Mackay, Criton chairman and experienced NXD, are joining the advisory board.
Visible Capital’s platform takes advantage of the opportunities opened up by PSD2 and Open Banking rules which give consumers more control over their banking data. The technology will help clients give wealth managers, pension providers, IFAs and other intermediaries controlled access to their financial data, allowing them to receive quicker, more informed advice on products such as ISAs and pensions.
The firm is led by Richard Braidwood, Ross Laurie and Christian Burgin.
Co-founder Braidwood said: “Financial advisers and wealth managers still take information from their clients in paper form – which means the advice they give and the strategies they suggest can only be as good as the immediate information they receive.
“Visible Capital’s technology allows the intermediary agreed and controlled access to real data about spending needs, wants, savings and borrowing, giving an instantly accurate picture of their clients’ ongoing finances – making the onboarding process quicker and easier, and a lot more precise.
“Fully compliant and easy to use, switching to a data driven onboarding process seems like an inevitable step forward, allowing advisers to mitigate risk, benefit from built-in compliance, and give better advice in one fell swoop.”
Mark Hogarth, partner at Techstart Ventures, said: “We are delighted to back the team at Visible Capital as we believe they have identified a huge opportunity and their combined experience means they are uniquely placed to deliver on it.”
Visible Capital is already in talks with potential clients.
Braidwood added: “Seed funding has allowed us to hit the ground running, hiring critical staff members and allowing us to move directly to talks with key potential users. Having clear information benefits both adviser and consumer, and ultimately, contributes to both the quality of investment decisions and consumer trust in the adviser network.”
