When investing, your capital is at risk.
Savings here, crypto there, investments somewhere else. The world of finance is complex, particularly when there are more challengers than ever before to consider when managing your money.
After being co-founder and CTO of the pioneering challenger, Starling Bank, Mark Hipperson started Ziglu to give customers a smart, accessible and fair way to access crypto and traditional currencies, all in one place.
This is money done differently.
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What is Ziglu’s vision?
Five years ago, challenger banks changed financial services in the UK for the better.
These groundbreaking fintechs proved they can do a better job banking than banks could, by putting their customers first, not ripping them off and helping them save and manage their money. Customers flocked to them by the millions. Regulators and traditional banks were taken aback by their incredible success, but the challengers weren’t – they had planned for it from the beginning.
Now, challenger banks are becoming the incumbents and there’s a new financial product that’s required to meet the needs of the modern, money-savvy user who’s after crypto and traditional currency all in one. Ziglu brings those financial services together under one roof, solving Crypto and FX in the same momentous way that the fintechs of five years ago solved banking.
Our first challenge was the hardest; how do we build a cloud-native banking service platform and integrate multiple exchanges to provide simple, zero risk, instant access to crypto currencies – all alongside a normal current account?
How is Ziglu disrupting the cryptocurrency market?
We’re bringing the ‘challenger approach’ to digital currencies – the same methodology that gave challenger banks their competitive edge, to ultimately put their customers in control of their money. The app is simple to use and makes it easy to access the best possible prices for currencies and crypto. We don’t charge hidden fees, there are no margins lurking in the small print – the platform is transparent and human (we pride ourselves on exceptional customer service). Ziglu users have access to support over the phone, chat or email whenever they need it. Moreover, users’ crypto assets are insured up to £50k, meaning we’re always looking out for them, and their money.
What has the company’s growth looked like so far?
Ziglu launched in 2020 and the growth even since then has been pretty impressive. We’ve grown our community to over 3,500 customers with a waitlist that gets longer by the day. In fact, between May and July this year we were onboarding a new customer every three minutes. That’s a lot of people we’re able to bring into the world of crypto. This year we became one of the best-rated fintech companies in the world, with a 94% rating on TrustPilot. So with that setting the tone for the future, we’re really excited for what’s to come.
How will the proceeds from this round be used?
There’s a lot in the pipeline for Ziglu and we’ll be using the funds from this crowdfunding round to really power key areas like product development, marketing, investing in and growing our team, and expanding internationally.
We have an aggressive product roadmap that includes new services such as FX accounts, improved crypto pricing, European instant payments, credit and split payment options. This raise will allow us to bring those to market faster.
In regard to marketing, we’ve been able to simply take advantage of our early waitlist and our community which has grown impressively organically. We’ll be looking to accelerate our user acquisition efforts through multiple new channels such as performance marketing, affiliates and offline marketing to keep that growth going and reach new markets.
We already have an established plan in the works to quickly expand our operations into Continental Europe and North America. We’ll be investing in establishing regulatory requirements and growing regional teams to bring that plan to life quickly.
Are there any new partnerships or products in your pipeline?
We’ll be launching new cards, as well as adding new traditional currencies to the platform so that our users can spend like a local absolutely anywhere they go in the world.
What do you look for in new talent?
When we’re hiring we look for the regular things, like knowledge of the space and tangible, applicable skills. More than anything though, we want to see a passion for customers and the ability to confront a challenge with innovative solutions. We want the creatives and the ideas people, the ones who think big to stretch the possible to push themselves and their team to deliver on promises.
What’s one piece of advice you’d give to someone thinking about venturing into cryptocurrency?
Stop thinking and try it! Open a Ziglu account, put in £10 and buy some crypto.
What are you doing when you’re not working?
Cheering on Chelsea or coaching football.
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To find out more about Ziglu, visit the pitch now.
