MoneyBrilliant founder Peter Lord spoke to Fintech Business about the genesis of the start-up he launched four years ago – as well as his plans for its future.
The idea for a website/app that collates all of a consumer's financial data came about in July 2011, Mr Lord said.
"It was to help my mum – that's where the seed of the idea came from," he said.
Mr Lord's parents were divorced "many moons ago", with his mum receiving the family home in the northern beaches of Sydney – valued at around $750,000 at the time.
Mr Lord, who was working at the Commonwealth Bank at the time, suggested that his mum borrow against the equity in her home to invest in a unit trust.
"She didn't go and see [a financial planner], she didn't go and borrow $50,000 or $100,000 and put that into a unit trust. Fast forward 25 years, mum's worrying about $8 bank fees and dad's worrying about where he's going on his next holiday," he said.
The original website (called Cha-Ching, until a legal stoush with CBA prompted the name change to MoneyBrilliant) was a blog with some financial tools attached.
But a partnership with Yodlee has turned the website into a finance hub where users could see all of their bank account, superannuation and investment data in one place – with all of the transactions categorised.
AMP put $1.5 million into the business last year, supplying the capital for the office space in Darlinghurst, Sydney, Mr Lord said.
"We’ve already gone to market with small pilots through AMP with their corporate superannuation clients," he said.
The plan is to help banks use MoneyBrilliant to make their institution become customers' primary financial institution, Mr Lord said.
MoneyBrilliant is also set to launch a premium version of the website by the end of September.
"The premium content will include [users'] net worth, with the ability to add in your other assets like your house or your car," Mr Lord said.
"We're also working with Yodlee to get additional data. Initially when you connect, you account there’s only three months’ [transaction] data – we want to get 12 months data," he said.
There will also be a savings feature that goes into the premium version, on top of the existing free budgeting tools.
