Yorkshire-based borrow better app ilumoni raises £1.2 million in seed round

Yorkshire-based ilumoni has raised £1.2 million in an oversubscribed seed round which attracted an additional 20 angel investors to the project. The fintech startup reports that the funding will be used to take the product to market with App Store and Google Play offerings planned for later this year.

As part of the deal, new investor James Eden and existing investor Simon Moran have both joined the board as non-executive directors.

“While there are many emerging tools that champion consumers’ financial degrees of freedom, there aren’t any that provide an independent view of borrowing and debt, despite the impact it can have on people’s financial and mental wellbeing,” comments Eden. “The purpose behind ilumoni, level of innovation and credentials of the team were more than enough to convince me this was an investment worth making.”

Founded in 2019, the free-to-use app helps individuals get a better understanding of, and management of their money. ilumoni provides a full overview of what’s owed, how long a full repayment will take, and a total borrowing cost over time with interest factored in. And not just an in-the-moment app, the real value comes when users interact with the app’s tools to change scenarios, i.e. finding alternative products that wrack up less interest, help pay off balances sooner, or free up cash.

In a time when 42% of people report some form of negative change in their financial circumstances (thanks COVID), and the FCA reporting that more than half of all UK adults are paying interest on their borrowing, it would appear that there’s never been a better time for such a service.

Sure, there’s always the tried and true method of breaking out the pen and paper and working the numbers, but let’s be honest, we’d all rather watch the grass grow. And to be fair, there’s an even younger generation now entering the big-time borrowing market that might not even be familiar with such a practice. Putting this method on a platform that they’re familiar with, and can interact with, well, I can imagine there are a number of lenders out there that aren’t going to take too kindly to what co-founder and CEO Gary Wigglesworth and his team are working on up north.

“Let’s face it, for most of us, calculating the cost of your borrowing and making sure you pay back optimally on the best deals is neither easy nor a fun way to spend your time. And we now expect young adults to emerge from school with financial literacy skills, yet they have no frame of reference. We want to change that and give people the tools to help them manage their borrowing so that they can spend time on the things they want to do, knowing their borrowing is under control,” agrees Wigglesworth.