A Manchester based start-up which offers a secure instant messaging platform, has raised £2m in a funding round.
Nivo is Barclays’ first technology spin-out and has been created to prevent customers from having to phone services, including banks, insurance and healthcare.
The money comes from GP Bullhound, the Angel CoFund and a number of angel investors. Those include Elizabeth Gooch, the founder and CEO of EG Solutions, who’ll now join the company’s board.
“Manchester is a growing hub for disruptive and world-leading FinTech firms, and we’re delighted to be putting our support behind one of its leading lights. The strength of advocacy and results from its existing client base impressed us right from the beginning, with the Nivo team developing an unparalleled product offering that is disrupting the financial services industry,” said Hugh Campbell, GP Bullhound’s Managing Partner.
Nivo launched in 2018 and already works with a number of financial services firms, claiming that processes, which were taking up to 6 weeks, can now be done in 15 minutes.
“Our mission is to make it easier for consumers to connect with service providers in regulated industries like financial services. Our clients are using Nivo to deliver simpler mobile experiences, which reduce effort and empower customers. This means everyone saves time, costs go down and satisfaction goes up,” added Nivo CEO, Mike Common.
“We’re making the latest and best financial technologies available to anyone. For service providers, it’s free to get started, with no technical effort required, then a simple monthly subscription.”
Co-Founder Matthew Elliott explained that Nivo came about because banks were spending “billions” trying to solve the problem that 80% who started applications for financial services, dropped out.
“We felt that the answer wasn’t secure portals, augmented omnichannel AI experiences or blockchain. It was much simpler. The answer was instant messaging. We use it every day, it’s a convenient and established channel of choice. The only thing you couldn’t do, was message your bank,” he said.
“So, we built the only instant messaging network that’s safe enough for banks to trust. Then we hooked in a range of FinTech features: from identity verification, through open banking to e-signing, which meant that a full range of customer service and sign up can all be done in the messaging channel – anytime, anywhere over mobile.”
According to Elliott, since its launch, Nivo has enabled more than £20m of loans and engaged with over 30k customers.
