Why we invested: PlannerPal
In August 2023, Ada Ventures led a £500k investment round alongside prominent fintech angel investors in PlannerPal, an AI-assistant for financial planners.
We made this investment because one of our main areas of focus for investment in Fund II is economic empowerment. We want to support start-ups that help people better control and benefit from their financial resources. And, of course, generate exceptional returns for Ada Ventures’ investors as we do so.
PlannerPal is revolutionising a sector that has proved stubborn till now. Independent financial advisers (IFAs) tend to be incredibly client-focused but some parts of the industry have historically been averse to new technology. We’re seeing this change and are investing into this trend.
The client administration and compliance burdens of the FCA framework mean that many IFAs and wealth managers cannot take on more than a hundred or so clients without hiring a large support team. According to PlannerPal research, most advisers spend over 40% of their time on administration. They are often obliged to take on an army of paraplanners, assistants and junior wealth managers to deal with it.
This is a sector which is ripe for innovation!
And here is where AI comes in. Sure, it’s forecast to change every industry but an industry-specific approach solving real and meaningful business problems is where the rubber is going to hit the road. We believe that AI will reduce the cost of providing high quality financial advice, which will open up this vital service to many in the UK that currently cannot afford an IFA.
So, what exactly does PlannerPal do?
PlannerPal is an AI assistant for financial planners. Features include automated meeting summaries; AI-assisted document drafting; the ability to search past conversations and use the app on your mobile phone to record in-person meetings and voice notes.
All of these features are specifically designed for financial planners. For example, their transcription tech has been trained using industry jargon; there’s no danger that you’ll find yourself reading about proscribed terrorist organisations instead of ISAs. And the app is beautifully designed and very intuitive to use so onboarding is easy even for the most tech-phobic of financial planners.
In short, using the PlannerPal app enables financial planners to save time and serve more clients in these ways:
Get back to clients faster.
Save time on client administration.
Serve more clients and build their business.
Improve data and client data integrity.
Foster team collaboration.
Why does PlannerPal fit the Ada Thesis and what got us excited?
At Ada Ventures, we invest in the founder as much as their idea. And this is one of the perfect examples of great founder-market fit.
Mark Whitcroft was a founding partner of a fintech venture capital firm called Illuminate Financial, backed by JP Morgan and Barclays among others. He has been advising financial service firms on fintech including the industry trade body, the Investment Association. He’s a longstanding expert in B2B fintech and wealth management technology.
Shoomon Perry used to run digital at Halifax and at TSB Bank. At Barclays, he ran the digital function for the UK wealth and savings businesses and also focused on how the bank could better serve older clients during the pandemic. The financial services tools he’s built are used by millions of people.
Together they make a formidable team.
It seems funny to say it now, but we didn’t actually invest in PlannerPal at first. We initially put money into another idea. Mark and Shoomon were actually working together, with a market research grant from the UK National Innovation Centre for Ageing, on a start-up called Hazel, offering finance and property guidance to older adults.
But during their research process, Mark and Shoomon realised that there was a better way of empowering older adults economically and helping them maximise their finances. About 75% of the clients of financial advisers are older adults. But only eight to 10% of adults have access to financial advice.
There’s a dearth of tailored financial advice but many people who need it. And many advisers feel unable to take on more clients because of bureaucracy. And here’s where technology comes in. The advent of large language models offered an opportunity to reduce the administrative burden and scale. This is a compelling example of how we can use existing tech to really improve people’s lives, and promote healthy ageing. It’s about using tech to democratise access to financial advice.
How did the investment happen?
I’ve known of Mark as a fintech specialist investor for about a decade and I was interested in the idea of him moving to the other side of the fence. The partnership of Shoomon and Mark was a fascinating prospect and I was keen to watch them go from idea stage to early product and help them raise the necessary finance along the way.
Looking forward
PlannerPal launched the beta product at the conference Empowering Advice Through Technology (EATT) in January. They won Best in Show at the Tech Battle and since then have been busy with welcoming early beta customers. They onboarded 25 firms in the first week.
There are so many ways Mark and Shoomon can take this business because they are focusing on the most important source of truth: the client conversation. Potential avenues for PlannerPal are intriguing and include adviser empowerment and training, improving quality of data in CRM, personalised marketing from adviser to client as well as compliance use cases. Financial planners are going to find that their professional lives run a whole lot more smoothly and clients are going to see the benefits too.
