Updraft, a UK-based part lending, part credit report, and part financial planning app designed to tackle escalating consumer borrowing, secured £16m in equity and debt funding.
Specialist investment firm Quilam Capital led on the debt side, and the UK Government’s Future Fund participating via their convertible loan note alongside a group of high-net-worth investors.
Founded by financial services executive Aseem Munshi, former Head of Cards and Unsecured Lending for HSBC, UK, Updraft wants to help customers get rid of spend-linked borrowings such as credit cards, overdrafts and increasingly, the buy now pay later schemes often found on ecommerce sites. Using open banking and credit report data, it automatically builds a 360-degree picture of a user’s spending and borrowing and provides a series of interventions designed to lift the consumer back into the black. Where expensive borrowing is detected, users can get ‘Updraft Credit’ to pay off these high-interest-rate debts with a lower-cost loan.
Updraft is available now on iPhone via the Apple App Store, with the Android version soon to follow.
Alongside Munshi, the business has a founding team including David Yalland (Chief Product Officer) and Matt Millar (Chief Technology Officer). Greg Detre, the former Chief Data Scientist at Channel 4 is heading up data science for Updraft; whilst Andrés Castaño (ex Starling Bank) leads mobile.
In addition to the support of Quilam Capital, Updraft has created a board of advisors that includes Mat Braddy, Brand Founder of Just Eat plc, Philip George, founder of Shawbrook Bank and Sanjiv Sud, ex Head Retail Bank HSBC India, and Global exec at HSBC.
FinSMEs
04/12/2020