Singlify secures £400,000 investment from Fair4All Finance
Fair4All Finance makes its first investment in technology suppliers with a £400,000 investment in Singlify to work with UK credit unions to bring Singlify’s loan origination, core banking and CRM system to the community finance sector.
London, 20 June, 2023. Fair4All Finance and Singlify have announced a package of investment that will enable Singlify to further develop their existing loan origination, core banking and CRM application to help credit unions in England, Scotland and Wales with their digital transformation journey, supporting them to better serve their members.
In an innovative “for the sector, by the sector” approach, Singlify is working with a number of independent credit unions (including Citysave Credit Union, Great Western Credit Union, Central Liverpool Credit Union, Notts and Lincs Credit Union). This is a diverse group who will provide guidance on the key technology requirements of the sector, process and user interface design recommendations, prioritisation for 3rd party integrations and data migration requirements.
James Berry, CEO of Great Western Credit Union said “Technology innovation is key to the health and growth of the credit union sector. We welcome any initiative that makes the best technology accessible to credit unions and helps us to compete better with high cost and fintech lenders, and most importantly to deliver tangible benefits for those needing improved access to responsible lending. As a credit union pioneer in the development of a fintech approach we’re pleased to be able to share our learnings with our sector colleagues for the benefit of all.”
In addition to the credit unions, Singlify is working closely with sector specialists and other technology providers to refine their approach. Technology integrations will be central to the product strategy and discussions are already underway with other exciting innovators in the sector such as CU Apps, Engage, FinDock, GoCardless and NestEgg.
The investment from Fair4All Finance, combined with the expertise of independent credit unions and integration partners, will enable Singlify to further develop their technology to meet the unique needs of personal finance providers such as credit unions, providing them with a modern technology platform that will underpin their growth and better support their members.
Singlify is built on Salesforce.com technology, providing credit unions with both access to the world’s leading CRM solution and an easily customisable and extensible platform that is both secure and future proof.
Jonathan Turner, Innovations Lead at Fair4All Finance commented ”This investment is the first from our Technology Investment Programme, which is designed to encourage innovation and expand existing solutions for the community finance sector. Our research shows there’s a high level of ambition throughout the sector to further develop their use of technology and we’ve been really impressed by what Singlify have already achieved. With this support and further investments in the market, we believe they help community finance providers address some of the challenges the sector is facing, particularly around dependence on legacy technologies.”
Maarten Rooney, Founder and CEO of Singlify added “As a social enterprise we are committed to providing affordable solutions to all inclusive finance providers. We estimate that our current platform of loan origination, core banking and CRM capabilities is already an 80% fit for credit unions. The investment from Fair4All Finance will allow us to work with a select group of visionary credit unions to develop the additional functionality over the course of 2023 with the first live deployments anticipated later this year or early 2024. We will also be partnering with other game changing technology providers in the sector to enable credit unions to adopt a best of breed ‘open’ approach to their systems architecture.”
Read more about this exciting new initiative here and click here to sign up for regular updates on our credit union work.
About Fair4All Finance:
Fair4All Finance is a not for profit organisation founded in early 2019 to improve the financial wellbeing of people in vulnerable circumstances by increasing access to fair, affordable and appropriate financial products and services.
There are at least 17.5m people in the UK in vulnerable financial circumstances, who are poorly served or unfairly excluded from consumer credit markets. That’s nearly a third of all adults in the UK.
Fair4All Finance is funded from The Dormant Assets Scheme. The scheme is led by the financial industry and backed by the UK government. This makes it possible for money in dormant bank and building society accounts to be used to help good causes.
About Singlify:
Singlify is a social enterprise FinTech based in London. We support Microfinance Institutions (MFIs), Community Development Financial Institutions (CDFIs), Social Investment Finance Intermediaries (SIFIs), and Credit Unions in the UK and
Europe to digitalise their operations.
Our mission is to provide technology that empowers Inclusive Finance Providers to dramatically change access to financial support for underserved communities. Singlify is currently used by 19 inclusive financial providers in the UK and Europe to manage over £500m of loans and other assets.
