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Giovanni Daprà, co-founder and CEO of Moneyfarm, spoke with The Wealth Mosaic about the company’s journey, the strategic moves it has made along the way, and the changes he is anticipating and preparing for over the next few years. Here’s an extract from the interview.
Tell us about what led you to found Moneyfarm – what gap did you see in the market, and how did your earlier professional experiences help you to identify it?
The gap I saw in the market was the lack of solutions and advice for the mass-affluent space. Even today it’s very difficult for that segment to get advice. I had the idea of a digital platform, with a lower cost-to-serve and a customer price point than the traditional providers – that is what led me to open Moneyfarm and create that solution overlay on top of the traditional do-it-yourself platform. I had been working in investment banking and building products, so I saw the complexity of the industry and the information asymmetry which is still one of its building blocks. And that led me to push for greater simplification, and to deliver solutions in a different way.
What did the early years of Moneyfarm look like, and how has it grown since then?
The early years were very different. We were pioneers when we launched, there were just a couple of solutions in the US and the first FinTech wave was very early in its life. We were only recently postfinancial crisis – people were thinking of new models to serve because they understood that the industry was somewhat broken. The first years were really about the early product development lifecycle. We were trying to understand the market, understand the customer, design the solutions, find our way through the maze of doing a startup. Although we had a clear vision of where we wanted to go, figuring out how to get there was a challenge in the early days – but it was also very fun. Now it’s totally different. We have a proven business model and we’re managing more than €6.3 billion AUM. So that’s a completely different range of complexity, skill-set, and priorities.
What is unique value proposition, and how do you distinguish from other digital and traditional advisory firms?
uniqueness is in blending digital and human delivery with a broad range of solutions. We believe we’re one of the only comprehensive wealth partners in the digital space. We offer a range of solutions guided advice, DIY, tax wrappers, pension consolidation, and saving. I don’t think saving, wealth, brokerage, and pension consolidation exist in a single holistic platform anywhere else. What differentiates us is that everything sits on the same digital platform with the ability to access qualified consultants, so we help customers through their entire financial lives. We do that by partnering with the customer, not just by being a platform. That’s what distinguishes us from other digital players, and our fully digital model distinguishes us from traditional firms.
A core aspect of model has been the blend of technology with human insight – how has that hybrid approach evolved over its lifetime, and what have the new technologies that have emerged over the last 15 years enabled?
In the last 15 years, improvements in digital interfaces, digital onboarding, and tools for engagement have really allowed us to execute on our hybrid model. Mobile technology, the fact that you can log into the app as many times a day as you like, creates many more touchpoints that allow us to be present for you and your family. Data automation and integration are now easier to implement. Consumers are more open to video calls rather than face-to-face meetings. The combination of technology adoption allows a different level of engagement. And since 2024, we’ve started to talk about artificial intelligence (AI) – that’s a different paradigm, but more for the future than the present.
What strategic moves have most reshaped your business model and goals?
There have been three big moments in history. One is when we expanded into the UK in 2015, after starting in Italy, to build upon our European business that was a pivotal decision. The other decision was launching a B2B2C proposition with our first customers in Italy. Working with partners, we were able to combine our platform engagement model and technology to enhance distribution. That started in 2018; now we have over €1 billion in the B2B2C channel, and the platform service has really accelerated. The third big moment was our product expansion between 2022 and 2024. We started with the wealth vertical; then we saw a convergence of brokerage, pension consolidation, and saving. In two years, including through acquisition, we expanded from just being a wealth provider to brokerage and pension consolidation. That gave us scale, but also the ability to allow for broader entry points which allows the platform to grow faster.
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