UK fintech startup Stoa has launched its new ‘Stoa Pots’, providing customers a brand new mannequin for his or her financial savings. As a substitute of incomes conventional rates of interest, the platform turns financial savings deposits into free subscriptions and one-off way of life perks, corresponding to Netflix, Strava, Apple units, and flights.
Stoa is positioning its mannequin as a “third vacation spot for cash,” creating a brand new choice that’s distinct from the normal selections of spending or investing.
Tackling an “outdated” financial savings market
Stoa is launching right into a UK financial savings market that it describes as “huge however outdated.” The corporate cites current analysis displaying that UK savers are sitting on greater than £614billion in “spare money” – a determine that has grown by a 3rd since 2022.
This highlights a big client desire for holding money somewhat than investing, which the corporate attributes to danger aversion, lack of understanding, inertia, or concern pushed by inflation and recession. With round 15 million adults now holding extra money, Stoa argues there’s a clear lack of innovation and selection within the present system.
The corporate famous that in 2024, deposits in UK financial savings accounts exceeded £2trillion, but most choices for on a regular basis savers stay restricted to conventional accounts, ISAs, or fixed-term merchandise that ship modest, often-taxed returns which hardly ever beat inflation.
A “more healthy various” to BNPL
Stoa is positioning its “save, we pay” mannequin as a direct and “more healthy various” to the credit-fuelled ‘buy-now, pay-later’ (BNPL) growth.
“BNPL makes you purchase stuff you don’t want with the cash you don’t have,” stated Mike Saraswat, co-founder and chief government officer of Stoa. “Stoa is the other. Our message is straightforward: you save, we pay. By turning financial savings into prompt way of life rewards – from FT and Third House to personal membership memberships and NordVPN – we’re making monetary self-discipline really feel pretty much as good as spending, however with out the debt hangover.”
The platform works by having customers deposit cash right into a ‘Stoa Pot’, which in flip instantly unlocks rewards. These rewards might be ongoing subscriptions like Netflix, Spotify, or Strava, or one-off perks corresponding to flights, Amazon vouchers, Waitrose purchasing, or Apple units. The objective is to make the act of saving as “satisfying as spending.”
A “center know-how layer” for the financial savings ecosystem
Sam Goodenough, co-founder and chief know-how officer of Stoa, described the idea as making a “third vacation spot” for customers’ cash.
“For years, UK customers have solely had two locations for his or her cash: spend it, or make investments it,” stated Goodenough. “However not everybody desires to take a position, and spending – typically fuelled by overconsumption — can create remorse. Stoa creates a 3rd vacation spot: a spot the place financial savings are protected, measurable and immediately rewarding.”
Basically, the Stoa platform is a brilliant “center know-how layer” designed to take a seat throughout the financial savings ecosystem, working with banks, constructing societies, retailers, and finish prospects. By connecting deposits on to rewards, Stoa goals to allow monetary establishments to have interaction prospects in new methods, whereas concurrently serving to retailers purchase and retain these prospects extra successfully.
Man Pantall, head of economic product structure at Stoa, added: “As charges and client behaviour evolve, money administration must evolve too. The problem is to make money work more durable with out pushing folks into investments they don’t need or debt they’ll’t afford. Stoa creates progressive methods for customers and establishments alike to show money into actual worth — immediately and responsibly.”
Stoa was based in 2022 with a mission to “make your financial savings energy your way of life” by rewarding monetary stability as an alternative of debt.
