WIREDGOV

The award-winning Cardiff-based entrepreneur behind ActiveQuote, the highly successful online comparison service for health and protection insurance, is set to launch his next FinTech venture, Wealthify, in April.

ActiveQuote – launched in 2009 – is now the UK’s leading comparison site and broker of health & protection insurance products.  It has seen strong year-on-year growth, increasing turnover by more than 400% between 2011-14, and expanding from just 20 staff in 2011, to over 120 in 2016.

Dr Richard Theo, founder and MD of ActiveQuote, has co-founded Wealthify, a revolutionary online investment service designed for the mass market.

Wealthify builds personal investment plans for customers, based on their attitude to risk, then invests, monitors and manages their money for them every day. The service is designed for the digital age, allowing customers to check their investments via phone or tablet, 24/7.

Wealthify is Wales’s latest FinTech startup. It joins a small crop of existing UK companies targeting the fast-growing robo-investment market, which is predicted to reach up to £1.8tn in assets under management globally within the next decade.

The new enterprise is backed by £143,000 business finance from the Welsh Government, which will help accelerate development of its cutting-edge technology and create 39 jobs over the next four years, with potential for further growth in the future.

Economy Minister Edwina Hart:

“ActiveQuote, which was also supported by the Welsh Government, is an impressive Welsh success story and I am delighted the group is now developing another financial technology (FinTech) company also based in Cardiff.

“Wealthify joins an ever expanding list of companies working in the FinTech sector and sends out a strong signal to the financial and professional services sector that Wales is a great place to launch and grow a business.”

Richard Theo said:

"The majority of UK savers are stuck in low-interest cash savings accounts or cash ISAs, earning next to nothing. Investing in the markets is one of the best ways for people to grow their money, yet people don’t.

“We think there’s strong potential for simple, affordable solutions that allow everybody to access stock market returns, regardless of how much they have to invest; this is why we’ve created Wealthify.

“We successfully built a national online health and protection insurance brand with ActiveQuote and aim to emulate our success with Wealthify for investing. Help and support from the Welsh Government has been invaluable as the funding will enable us to accelerate the development of the business with the ambition of empowering 1 million savers to become investors in the next decade.”