Octopus is to launch Octopus Moneycoach to bring financial coaching to the mass market.
The venture comes after the acquisition of Hatch Financial Coaching, and will work primarily with employers, who offer its services as part of their workplace benefits.
Existing clients include MoneySuperMarket, Sony Interactive Entertainment, Epson, and Experian.
Under proposed plans, the number of its financial coaches is set to increase from 30 to 200 over next two years, thanks to an investment of £10m from Octopus.
Simon Rogerson, co-founder and CEO of Octopus Group, said: “While the advice industry serves many people extremely well, there are still vast swathes of UK population who don’t get any form of financial advice.
“Octopus Moneycoach offers a solution to this by providing easy to understand financial coaching at a much lower cost for those people who would otherwise struggle to get help.”
Originally founded in 2017, Hatch Financial Coaching offered both robo-guidance as well as human help, intending to appeal to those who benefit from a human relationship to help make financial decisions, but don’t yet have sufficient assets or complex needs that warrant traditional advice.
The acquisition comes as millions of people adapt to changes in their financial circumstances due to the impact of Covid-19, yet the vast majority remain without access to any form of financial advice.
The FCA has previously estimated that more than 18m people in the UK could benefit from more affordable advice.
Adam Price, founder of Hatch, will remain in the role of CEO. He said: “Octopus has been a vocal champion of financial advice and the need to close the advice gap for many years now, making it a natural partner for us in this next stage of growth.
“We know there’s a huge need for this kind of service, maybe more so now than ever before, and I’m incredibly excited about what we can achieve as part of Octopus.”
Tom Higgins is a freelance reporter for FTAdviser
