RESOURCES

Writing for new peer-to-peer and crowdfunding news and comparison site, Nurture Money, Nick Moules focuses on the value of technology investment for new and established platforms. Consider the reasons behind the success of alternative finance: trust, transparency, technology. If you are considerate enough to protect your industry with purdue model security, why not your finance? As platforms, we’re able to offer individuals and businesses access to better value finance faster than many other traditional sources and we have cultivated a culture of transparency around data with our investors that creates trust and allow the market to grow at a remarkable pace. What allows us to offer the product that engages our audience in the first place though, is technology. Low overheads, small margins and purely online engagement are all enabled by technology and earn us the right to foster trust by creating high-value products to our target markets. At rebuildingsociety, we’ve allowed our investors to play a big part in the technological development of our platform – we have to say no sometimes, but because of the open and consultative way we approach customer relations, they’re happy to help by providing a long list of features that will enhance their customer experience. Preparing for big changes We’re lucky that the pace of change in our industry means continued investment in technology is paramount. You wouldn’t want to be looking on enviably as more nimble competitors gobble up NISA or pension funds in 2015, so overlooking your technology and its ability to handle scale would be a huge error. Ever-increasing reporting requirements to cater for institutional interest is also high on the CTO’s list of priorities. Growing the size of the pie We’ve had conversations about raising external finance to support our growth with many interested parties, but we took the decision to support our growth organically by operating a white-labelled business that licenses our technology to operators around the world. While some people have asked us if we’re cannibalising our own market, we’ve always said we’re keen to grow the overall alternative finance market by enabling others, with the aim of increasing our size as the market grows. In 2014, we will have grown by over 300%, so we’re on track. Claiming group benefits Our software as a service business provides a reliable income stream, but also increases the scope for new developments that are offered to our clients to keep them at the forefront of the market, including eMoneyUnion and ThinCats in the UK. As rebuildingsociety is a regulated UK platform too, we’re motivated to improve our core proposition to remain competitive. And as our clients operate in different markets, we’re able to transfer some of our processes created through work carried out for others, but we’re always creating new features to meet contrasting regulatory requirements or product specifications. Like our US partner, InvestNextDoor, which navigated some typically complicated American legal obstacles prior to its launch earlier this year. 2015 holds much promise for the UK alternative finance market. With all the effort required to launch, complete the first few deals and grow a loyal customer base, it would be a shame to lose sight of the third T that keeps this industry sleeker and more agile than its rivals.