As Kiwis Struggle To Get Ahead, Thousands Download NZ’s First ‘set And Forget’ Investment App: Sugar Wallet

Inflation is at a 30 year high. Everything feels expensive; wages haven’t kept up and getting ahead feels like a distant dream. However, thousands of non-investors have downloaded a brand new investment app for beginners: Sugar Wallet in an effort to build a more secure financial future. In under four months, despite having spent $0 on marketing, Sugar wallet has gone viral with first time investors. The country’s first ‘set and forget’ paycheck investment app has driven four thousand everyday earners to join the investment revolution, a large percentage of whom have jumped on board in an attempt to beat inflation - with 80% of them being first time investors. In addition, ‘rich listers’ are clamouring to invest, calling it a ‘step change’ in financial empowerment products.

(You can find it under ‘Sugar Wallet’ on your phone’s app store, or visit www.sugarwallet.com for more information.)

Taking on NZ’s largest investment platforms and Kiwisaver providers

Earlier this year, extensive customer discovery with hundreds of ‘everyday humans’ that included tradies, doctors and even those currently unemployed revealed that helping people to make investing a ‘habit’ was the most impactful change Sugar Wallet could help them make to improve their financial wellbeing. But the mechanism had to address common roadblocks encountered with existing investment products.

“We spent time observing our potential customers open competitor investment websites; and listening to how they felt about those experiences. We then set out to build something that would solve how those experiences made them feel - which in their own words was often ‘overwhelmed’ and ‘confused’,” explains Devrath (Dev) Soni, successful entrepreneur and Founder of Sugar Wallet,

…by fighting complexity

He goes on to explain: “In APAC alone, there are 143 million who can afford investing but continue to primarily save through their bank. In line with this, according to a recent FMA report (p73), just 17% of those aged 18-54 invest in managed funds. One of the reasons for this is because platforms are too complex and time consuming for the everyday person who has lower financial literacy.”

Unlike other investment platforms that rely on users to make difficult and time consuming investment choices (cue: hundreds of share options and a time-consuming financial literacy journey that might take a novice months to complete); Sugar Wallet’s promise is simple: Start investing in under 5 minutes.

…by beating inflation

A large percentage of Sugar Wallet’s users admit to using the app to set aside money and try to ‘beat inflation’ in the long term. Unlike Kiwisaver, investors can withdraw at any time - something that has become increasingly important given that just 21% of New Zealanders feel they are in a secure financial position and 6 out of 10 Kiwis believe inflation is increasing faster than their ability to save (FMA report).

How it works…

Sugar Wallet helps new investors automatically invest a percentage of their pay-check, into one of three easy investment funds in under five minutes. It’s a simple platform for beginner investors that feels familiar, safe and easy - so they can finally get started.

Many users say that “It feels like a Super/KiwiSaver…” (but where you can withdraw at any time). Sugar is not a Kiwisaver platform. Sugar notes that there are clear differences between Kiwisaver and its platform, including but not limited to employer contributions and an inability to withdraw at any time. The team has partnered with established fund managers like Simplicity to ensure their users have access to trusted investment options - but without jargon like ETFs; Stop loss and APY.

Additional angel investors clamour to invest

Dev is no stranger to small businesses gone bigger - having previously grown his custom clothing store, Devonché, to sell the most custom suits in New Zealand within three years out of a single store; serving news networks, All Blacks, Black Caps, BMW and others. He’s also helped a florist (Flowerist) to achieve $100K revenue digitally within its first six months.

His co-founder Sophia Ritchie has worked at Xero and Billy (a bill-splitting platform) as a software engineer and is also a serial entrepreneur.

Off the back of its ‘viral growth’, despite $0 spent on marketing, Sugar Wallet is now seeking to raise a further $2.7 million in investment, with 50% of that already committed since announcing the seed round just six weeks ago. Angel investors include executives and ex-operators from international fintechs and B2C giants including Canva and NZ Rich-Lister William Smale.

Dev plans to use the funds to both expand the company’s user base and develop further ultra simple financial products that will help address financial inequality and a desire to participate in securing a financially secure future, including gamified spend management, ridiculously simple insurance and claims and a card that has a ‘invest-back’ instead of a cash-back.

Sugar Wallet is also one of the earliest participants in the GD1 funded Phase One incubator which aims to produce 10 Kiwi technology ‘unicorns’ (or: ‘Kiwicorns’) by 2026.

“We’re solving very real challenges for everyday, financially inexperienced Kiwis; and we’re excited that they’re partnering with us to build habits that will literally change their future. It’s why we exist - to make investing sweeter…” concludes Dev.

(ENDS)

About Sugar Wallet

For everyday people with savings in the bank wanting to get ahead, Sugar is the simplest way to invest through an app.

Sugar helps you automatically invest a percentage of your pay-check, into one of three easy investment funds; currently provided by Simplicity. No over-complicating it. 5 minutes of onboarding, and you're now an investor, with automatic payments set up via open banking by the end of sign up.

Also see: Sugarwallet.com

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