Fintel (FNTL), the UK’s leading provider of support services to the UK retail financial services industry, has made its first investment via its new Fintel Labs fintech incubator, taking a 25% stake in Plannr Technologies Limited.
Plannr is an early stage fintech company building a specialist customer relationship management (CRM) tool for financial advisers, planners, and wealth managers. It has been testing its product with a test group of advisers over the past year, using feedback to prepare the intuitive workflow product for a full-scale launch.
As well as providing financial support, Fintel plans to integrate the CRM system into the Engage Platform – part of its Defaqto ratings and fintech business - already used by its wide network of financial advisers. Fintel’s aim is to create a one stop shop for advisers, enabling them to store customer data, create workflows, conduct financial planning, cash flow analysis, create suitability reports and publish to a dedicated customer portal in a single platform.
Matt Timmins, Fintel’s Joint CEO, commented: "Plannr represents the best of modern thinking and cutting-edge development. The technology has been designed by advisers and crafted by the skilled developers at Plannr to be beautifully intuitive, easy to use and infinitely scalable. Plannr's powerful CRM capability has the potential to unlock important efficiencies, streamlining the advice journey and improving suitability for consumers. We look forward to delivering better outcomes for everyone."
The investment marks the first step in Fintel’s plans to support the development of the UK’s burgeoning fintech industry by investing in innovative companies that can help it deliver ever-better outcomes across the retail financial services industry. That goal aligns closely with the UK’s Consumer Duty regulation, as well as leveraging the huge talent pool available in UK fintech.
As Plannr founder and CEO Gareth Thompson noted, Fintel’s “unrivalled” market reach makes it an ideal partner and investor for innovative fintech businesses looking to refine and scale their offerings. In recent years, Fintel has made significant investments in digitising its business and scaling up its own fintech offer to help its customers cope with the ever-larger regulatory burden they face.
That’s reflected in its latest trading updated which pointed to continued sales and profit growth, a rising dividend, and an increased cash position, which alongside a newly secured £80m revolving facility gives it plenty of firepower to lead the transformation of the retail financial services market.