Fintech startup Nosso is helping parents to plan and invest for their children’s financial future, and they’ve just secured €2.5 million as part of the endeavour. The round was led by Octopus Ventures and Anthemis with participation from additional investors including Entrepreneur First, Ventures Together, Errol Damelin, Tracy Doree and Peter Hetherington.
Founded by Youssef Darwich and Sigurjon Isaksson in 2020, the Nosso app allows parents to open up Junior stocks & shares ISAs and General Investment Accounts and select investments from a range of ETFs managed by BlackRock.
Youssef Darwich, CEO and co-founder of Nosso explained: “The main hurdle for many parents to effectively save for their children’s future is a lack of awareness about what they can do and a lack of tools that help them do that easily.”
The financial services industry is dominated by single-user products, designed for individuals managing money on their own. And whilst this works for a certain group of people, more and more digitally native parents want a more collaborative approach to wealth management.
Nosso addresses this by offering children investment accounts that two parents can track, manage and contribute to, together. The app also goes one step further by providing each user with a unique contribution link that they can share with anyone. This allows grandparents (as well as other family and friends) to contribute directly and seamlessly with no additional paperwork or even the need to open a Nosso account. Family members can also leave messages and pictures with their contributions allowing them to pass down memories as well as wealth to future generations.
Whilst today the app allows parents to invest through tax-efficient Junior ISAs (in the child’s name) or General Investment Accounts (in the parent’s name), Nosso intends to launch a number of new financial products regularly used in family financial planning such as more flexible Junior Investment Accounts (Bare trusts).
Tosin Agbabiaka, Octopus Ventures , commented: “We continue to see traditional firms in this space struggle to provide financial planning and wealth management solutions that address the needs of younger existing clients and a new generation of families. Therefore, Nosso stood out to us immediately for a number of reasons: the seamlessness way it integrates into a family’s life, the manner in which it’s transformed a traditionally ‘single-player’ approach to financial planning into a ‘multi-player’, sustainable approach, and the founders’ bold vision of democratizing intergenerational wealth transfer.”
