Lifetise

Idea

Introduction

Lifetise is a financial planning platform that helps people afford the big life events: buying a home, having kids, getting married and retirement.

We are currently helping people financially affected by Covid-19 by creating guides and interactive tools that direct people to the financial help available. Since the coronavirus crisis, our average site traffic has increased by nearly 700% as people need help navigating their changing financial situation.

We've started with 2 products:

Homefinder - shows how much you can afford to spend on a home, how long it will take to save, and where in the UK you can afford to buy.

Childminder - helps parents calculate the costs of childcare and how many days they need to work.

Now we're building the full platform that will allow you to plan all your major goals over an entire lifetime, playing out different scenarios to see what works best for you.

To our knowledge, what makes us so unique is that we’ve designed Lifetise in a very game-like way.

Our ultimate vision can be described as "The Sims for your real life". A world where you can play out different life scenarios and see how they impact your finances and your happiness.

Intended impact

Everyone we know faces the same challenges: trying to get on (or up) the property ladder, paying off student debt, deciding when to start a family...

And they're not alone.

Roughly 14 million people in the UK are at an age (25 – 40) when they’re ready to make those big life decisions. They already have approximately £1.75 trillion in wealth and are set to inherit another £4 trillion.

84% of millennials seek financial advice clearly highlighting the fact that, despite the skepticism about advisers, the necessity for world class investment advice is still in demand.

We're building Lifetise to show people what to do with their money at every stage of their life to achieve their goals:

- how to buy a home

- how to afford a family

- how to afford a wedding

- how to prepare for retirement

How to afford it all!

Substantial accomplishments to date

Sept 2017: Beta version of our Homefinder product is released via Reddit.

Jan 2018: Updated version of Homefinder trends on the main UK subreddit. This is picked up by the Evening Standard & Refinery29 who tell their readers it can tell them "where you can afford to buy a home in seconds."

May 2018: First version of our Childminder app is released via Reddit.

June 2018: Stylist Magazine publishes article by us about how to manage childcare costs as working parents.

Dec 2018: We are chosen to join Accenture's Fintech Accelerator, with partners from over 35 global financial institutions interested in partnering with startups.

Mar 2019: Lifetise graduates from Accenture's Fintech Accelerator. As a result, we are now negotiating a licensing deal with a major UK bank. Since completing the accelerator over 12,000 people have used our apps.

May 2019: A post about Lifetise becomes one of the most popular EVER about UK personal finance on Reddit.

June 2019: The Evening Standard runs a feature length article on Lifetise, saying we have created “tools to help you understand your money better and make plans that will let you afford the things you want in life”.

A podcast interview by our CEO, Caroline, goes to No1 on the Apple charts, even beating the mighty Tony Robbins!

Dec 2019: Selected to join TechHub's Accelerate program. Lifetise is featured in Forbes as a financial wellness platform. Launch commercial partnerships with Trussle and Habito for mortgages.

Mar 2020: We're named within the "Most Influential Fintechs of 2020" list by Financial Technologist Magazine.

Our CEO, Caroline Hughes, is named as "a Rising Star of Fintech" by Innovate Finance, Fintech's global trade body.

Monetisation strategy

Lifetise has three intended revenue streams:

1. Commission from marketplace product providers. We currently have commercial partnerships with Habito and Trussle for mortgages. We plan to add providers for insurance, estate agency, savings accounts, credit cards, investments, pensions and more.

Imagine a comparison site that knows exactly what you need, when you need it and matches you to the right product at the right time.

2. White label platform licensed to banks, investment managers and insurers. Lifetise is in conversations and has received interest from global financial institutions in the UK, Europe and Middle East.

3. Lifetise will introduce a premium service where users pay a monthly subscription for us to monitor and manage their finances over the long term to achieve their goals.

Use of proceeds

This crowdfund is part of a larger seed round, led by expert fintech angel investors.

We will use the funds for:

Product development (57%) - hire additional developers to build the full platform that will allow you to plan all your major goals over an entire lifetime.

Growth (32%) - establish Lifetise as a strong consumer brand and build on our validated channels to market across social, SEO and partnerships.

Operating costs (11%) - running costs, regulatory and accounting costs.