New UK start-up Stoa launches to offer an alternative to traditional interest-based savings

Featured in: Fintech Futures
https://www.fintechfutures.com/fintech-start-ups/new-uk-fintech-start-up-stoa-launches

UK fintech start-up Stoa has emerged from stealth with the aim to help individuals and small businesses save and manage their excess cash.

The company's new platform has been built to offer an alternative to traditional interest-based savings, targeting the UK's vast pool of idle savings totalling an estimated £614 billion.

CEO Mike Saraswat and CTO Sam Goodenough founded the start-up after meeting during Goodenough's role as a software consultant for Saraswat's previous venture, Ekstasy, an advertising agency that serves both B2C and B2B clients.

Speaking with FinTech Futures, Saraswat describes the company's workforce as

a growing team of eight, drawn from banking, technology, fintech, and marketing backgrounds, having worked on projects for brands such as Vodafone, Lloyds Bank, Starling Bank, Oracle, and Amazon.

Stoa's platform centres around two core offerings. Stoa Pots allows users to earn rewards and perks rather than traditional interest on their deposits, featuring more than 150 benefits across 20 categories from partners including Airbnb, Apple, Strava, Netflix, Waitrose, and various airlines. The second product, Stoa Saving Score, is a behavioural analytics tool that "tracks saving habits and helps people build stronger financial confidence over time", Saraswat explains.

Saraswat states that the start-up's platform is "built on proprietary systems integrated with regulated partners". Customer deposits are held with digital challenger Griffin Bank with FSCS protection up to £85,000, while open banking services are provided by Yapily. The company also plans to soon roll out Visa cards through its partnership with card programme manager Crunch.

The start-up has completed a pre-seed funding round with backing from investors connected to Citi, Goldman Sachs, HSBC, and AOL, though the company has not disclosed the specific amount raised. Saraswat acknowledges: "While rumours of a seed round are bubbling, we’ll make a separate fundraise announcement in due course."

Looking ahead, Stoa is preparing for international expansion into the US market, where it will focus exclusively on small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs). Saraswat says there is "a $1 trillion idle cash opportunity" spread across 35 million US businesses. He adds that this strategy will involve "partnering with local banks and merchant networks to help businesses unlock more value from their deposits, with perks across insurance, SaaS, health, internet, telephony, and other essential categories".

Reporter, FinTech Futures
Cameron Emanuel-Burns