UK fintechs Zopa and Clearscore smash cost of living campaign target
A cost-of-living campaign backed by Google Cloud and Hargreaves Lansdown and led by top UK fintech industry names Zopa and Clearscore has smashed its target.
The Fintech Pledge, which included 57 fintech and tech firms, targeted 25 million actions to help UK consumers better their financial resilience.
Zopa Bank revealed to Morning Wire last month it expected to meet the goal in May.
The campaign, which launched in 2022, aimed to help consumers across five “pillars of action” including savings, debt, credit, bills and benefits.
The firms said they had achieved 700,000 high-yield savings accounts created with £20bn deposited.
Meanwhile 53 per cent of users had improved their credit score.
Teams at Zopa and Google Cloud leveraged generative AI and language models to build solutions that helped drive consumer’s financial resilience.
This comes as consumer confidence survey sunk to -48 in April, a drop from -35 in March, as the escalating global trade war heightened financial anxieties.
Consumers’ expectations for the subsequent three months on their personal financial situation worsened to -16 in April, down from -10 in March, while their personal spending fell slightly to +10 in April, down from +11 in March.
Campaign eyes more expansion in 2025
The Money Charity – a financial wellbeing and education charity – joined the campaign as its lead charity partner.
Michelle Highman, chief executive of The Money Charity, said the “much-needed work” would continue, as they eye to reach “more people than ever in 2025.”
Jaidev Janardana, Zopa Bank’s chief executive, said: “In less than three years, the Pledge has improved consumers’ understanding of complex financial topics and enabled them to take simple actions to improve their financial situation.”
The digital bank reached unicorn status in 2021, after a fundraise round with Softbank.
The fintech recruited 122 members of staff amidst its 2024 expansion and is plotting a move to Canary Wharf, which is expected to double its office footprint.
Meanwhile, Clearscore was most recently valued at $700m in 2021.
The two firms have become staples of the booming fintech industry in the UK and are hotly anticipated to float on London markets.
The Fintech Pledge is set to publish an impact report in Autumn, outlining future priorities.