Futuregrowth Asset Management via its Futuregrowth Development Equity Fund (DEF) has invested in LifeCheq, a South African digitised holistic personal finance business that aims to make expert advice accessible to professionals and entrepreneurs who are currently not served well by the existing financial advice industry.

The investment was finalised in May.

Amrish Narrandes, Head of Unlisted Equity Transactions at Futuregrowth, said: “What we most liked about LifeCheq is that it has taken something like personal finance, which can be complex and as a result easily avoided, and uses technology to offer a financial service in an attractive way to a far broader market.”

LifeCheq’s competitive edge is that it tailors and personalises financial advice to suit different individuals with different risk profiles by using data and algorithms to generate solutions.

The business has two target markets: individuals, for their personal use; and employers, who are interested in offering their employees a financial wellness programme.

These potential markets give it diverse sources of revenue and expand the reach of the business across a wide variety of individuals and company employee bases.

Narrandes said LifeCheq is a disruptor in the financial services industry, with a well-defined, addressable market, providing wealth management technology-based services to mass-affluent and emerging-affluent individuals: “We also took comfort from the fact that the business had already built up traction and had proved its credentials and, as a result, we bought into the business vision and proposition.”

“Most importantly,” added Kearon Gordon, Investment Analyst at Futuregrowth, “the business has an impressive management team, with all the credentials and experience to qualify as an A-team. The four co-founders and members of the executive management team have a diverse range of experience from financial services product design to software engineering.”

Abu Addae, co-founder and CEO of LifeCheq said the company was looking for in an investor was a long-term partner whose business was synonymous with integrity and trust.

“As founders, we wanted to know that we have an investor who will be there in good times and bad times, whose mandate and objectives align to what we are trying to achieve, and with whom we can build a high trust relationship. Futuregrowth Asset Management met all these criteria.”

LifeCheq aims to become the primary way in which clients engage with their finances and navigate their most important life decisions.

“Our business is founded on high quality, tech-based independent advice to a new generation of professionals and entrepreneurs. Our clients are not very well served by an existing financial services industry that is very product- and commission-driven, so the need for independent advice is key. Not only has Futuregrowth supported our vision, but they have also pushed us to take it even further.”

Futuregrowth’s recent investment in LifeCheq supplements DEF’s other early-stage investment.

In late 2018, the asset manager made another VC investment in Yoco, the innovative technology-driven point- of-sale payments provider.