The audience-voted Best in Show prize produced four winners: Cardlytics, Dynamics, eToro and Nutmeg. In this article, we profile two of the winners and one further company that did not make the audience’s cut but which we believe to be an exciting prospect.
Cardlytics is a platform that sits between banks and merchants to deliver targeted offers to consumers based on their card transaction history. Already live with 209 banks in the US, Cardlytics is now looking to break into the UK with an injection of funding from Aimia – the company which owns the Nectar loyalty scheme in the UK. Anecdotal evidence suggests that just 12 months ago a UK bank viewed Cardlytics as clever, but not really on-brand for them. Wind forward to the present and that bank is apparently in the process of selecting a vendor for card-linked offers. We believe Cardlytics’ demo of a well-executed business model which has been proven operationally in the US makes it well-deserving of its place in the Best in Show Group.
Nutmeg is an investment management company with a strong digital flavour. It allows the customer to set up an investment fund on a single page and then executes the required trade to build the fund on the customer’s behalf. There has been a lot of press comment on the level of fees taken in actively managed funds – in some cases, payment for losing the customer’s money. Nutmeg’s fees are much lower and offer a discount the more the customer invests. The online functionality to track, review and manage funds is impressive, as are the modelling tools to align investment strategy to life goals. Nutmeg appears viable in its own right but also as a white labelled platform for Private Banks and Wealth Management companies.
IND is a vendor of white label mobile and online banking platforms. It uses gamification techniques to encourage users to explore the platform and thereby increase sales for the bank. Share of wallet and customer retention are also boosted by the ability to redeem points earned through using the platform for real world rewards such as a better interest rates on savings accounts. If anyone has any doubts that gamification has a place in banking, then IND is well worth a look.
David Hodgkinson, Principal Advisor, KPMG in the UK