Family finance start-up Hapi launches investment app for parents
Hapi has launched in the UK with its new app designed to help parents plan and invest for their children’s futures.
The UK launch follows a successful beta stage
The app allows parents to open a junior stocks and shares ISA or general investment account (if they want to keep the money in their own name) to help plan for future goals such as school fees, university fees and first home deposits.
The app suggests the monthly contribution required to reach the goal and will monitor it over time to help parents stay on track, based on the child’s age, the investments selected and the goal selected.
The UK launch follows a successful beta stage. The app is free to download, with an annual percentage fee on the amount invested. Hapi’s investment portfolios are managed by BlackRock.
The app also provides a link for each account that allows grandparents, other relations, godparents and anyone else to contribute directly to the child’s account.
Each contribution can include a message and a picture that is then stored in Hapi’s “time capsule”, allowing children to relive the memories when they access the funds at the age of 18.
Youssef Darwich, co-founder at Hapi, says: “Family finance has been left behind in recent years despite the hundreds of new fintech offerings coming to market.
“Take a Junior ISA for example – in nearly all cases today, the features you get in a Junior ISA are identical to those you get with a regular ISA, yet the use case is very different and to date has not been catered for.”
In the future, Hapi plans to help parents with other financial services and is also exploring partnerships with will writers and insurance providers.
UK-based Hapi was set up by Darwich and Sigurjon Isaksson. Darwich previously worked for challenger bank Tide and led the product side of Octopus Wealth. Isaksson has a background in machine learning and financial engineering. He has worked as an engineer for Samsung and Eigen Technologies.
