Startup Spotlight

MONET is aiming to unlock finance in the $250bn creator economy with its embedded finance products that seeks to provide near-instant financial inclusion to creators, flexible workers and other creative freelancers worldwide.
Many freelancers, creators, and talent supply top-rated brands via labour platforms or agencies, but they may face significant hurdles in securing timely payment. MONET provides an alternative by offering instant payouts, making it easier for creators to get paid quickly, maintain relationships, and ultimately drive their business forward.
For many, traditional financing options are not feasible. Generally, set up as sole traders rather than companies, these creators often lack the trading history or turnover required to qualify for traditional business financing. Compounding the problem, most contracts in this space allow for long payment terms ranging from 30 to 90 days.
The platforms and agencies that deal with these creators often struggle with cash flow due to the long payment terms from the brands they work with, yet they need to pay their creators quickly to maintain relationships. But MONET&#8217;s Fintech layer aims to eliminate these barriers, allowing freelancers, creators, and talent to access much-needed funding. As a result, agencies and labour platforms no longer have to struggle with cash flow.
A report by Visa found that 93% of creators are willing to change platforms, potentially in favour of instant payouts for their work.
MONET founder Jacob Casson is looking to take advantage of a gap he believes sits between the existing relationships that platforms and agencies have with millions of creators, and the large amount of capital flowing down from large enterprise brands through to these creators. Therefore, Jacob’s aim is to ensure that MONET is poised to transform the creator economy as the finance layer behind influencer platforms, creative freelancer agencies and affiliate networks.
<img decoding="async" loading="lazy" class="alignnone size-medium wp-image-4025" src="https://wp.floww.io//wp-content/uploads/2023/05/EP-HORIZONTAL-800x329.png" alt="Monet-artilce-banner" width="800" height="329" srcset="https://wp.floww.io//wp-content/uploads/2023/05/EP-HORIZONTAL-800x329.png 800w, https://wp.floww.io//wp-content/uploads/2023/05/EP-HORIZONTAL-1600x658.png 1600w, https://wp.floww.io//wp-content/uploads/2023/05/EP-HORIZONTAL-768x316.png 768w, https://wp.floww.io//wp-content/uploads/2023/05/EP-HORIZONTAL-1536x632.png 1536w, https://wp.floww.io//wp-content/uploads/2023/05/EP-HORIZONTAL.png 1920w" sizes="(max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px" />
MONET aims to enable platforms and agencies to drive financial inclusion to communities of creators, freelancers and SMEs who often find it challenging to access timely financing, without taking credit risk on these creators.
<h2>What does MONET do?</h2>
MONET, the embedded fintech layer, was created for creative agencies and digital labour platforms. It enables them to use MONET to generate new revenue streams through charging creators an early payment fee.
Their hero product, EarlyPay, integrates into platform and agency infrastructures to provide the equivalent of employee salary finance or earned wage access to the millions of freelancers and creators across the world. According to Jacob, EarlyPay can be best understood as “earned wage access for the world’s creators and flexible workers, accessed via their platforms and agencies”. Creators simply get paid early, while the platforms and agencies are able to streamline their financial operations, creating a new revenue stream for them as a fintech-enabled business.Currently, the company’s infrastructure can pay global networks in 130 countries and is estimated to be up to eight times cheaper than the cost of using the most popular methods Paypal and bank wires according to MONET’s research.
MONET has also launched a second product in its fintech layer, Perks, which acts like a white-label benefits programme for platforms and agencies to provide to their communities of creators, and flexible workers.
MONET launched Perks with the aim of making it easier for platforms to provide tailor-made perks to their creative communities, in their own branding, granting communities access to offers, discounts and experiences across business tools, travel, software, insurance, finance and more.
Perks is also an affiliate model that aims to enable the participating platforms to generate referral fees from the vendors via MONET.
<h2>Who is MONET helping?</h2>
Brands often pay slowly, and creators want fast payments, putting these platforms under pressure to manage both sides of their ecosystem. MONET’s product EarlyPay claims to enable them to pay their creators instantly, with their own branded fintech product.
Goldman Sachs estimates that the creator economy is worth $250bn and is anticipated to reach $480bn by 2027. Within this market, MONET’s initial focus is on the $21bn branded content segment where enterprise brands buy services from suppliers, or creators, via agencies and platforms, often known as influencer marketing. Internal Marketing Hub shows that 18,900 agencies and platforms offer branded content marketing services globally, and 83% of creator payments are made on inefficient and high-cost payment rails.
According to the business, creators and other suppliers doing work for large brands, may miss out on many of the benefits of being full-time employees, such as being part of an employee benefits programme. Therefore, MONET’s product Perks aims to deliver this via their platforms and agencies.
The fintech believes their business is compatible with any industry where large companies buy the services of small suppliers and flexible workers via platforms and agencies.
<h2>How does MONET work?</h2>
MONET looks to solve the cashflow issue faced by many in the creator economy by buying brand invoices from platforms to brands. Then, MONETs technology which integrates into platform and agency payment operations enables creators to request early payment. With its embedded finance layer, a platform can offer instant payments to creators once contracted work is completed, at the choice of the platform whether they would like to charge the creator a fee or offer it as a free service.
Platforms can add their own fee in addition to MONET’s EarlyPay fee, they can also offer deals to its community of creators using Perks, which increases customer loyalty. Moreover, using MONET’s platform simplifies and quickens the payments to creators from brands.
In addition, the embedded finance layer is white-labelled, and the platform keeps control of and in contact with their creators and brands.

Jacob Casson, founder and CEO

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Charles Lucas, finance director

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In 2018, Jacob ran an affiliate marketing business and faced slow cash flow due to long payment terms from enterprise brands. He wanted to help small businesses and sole traders in similar situations. During the COVID pandemic in 2020, he ideated MONET and built a waitlist of 7000 creators to validate demand. In 2021, he started offering financing directly to creators and freelancers with a B2C model, which later pivoted to an embedded B2B model in 2022.
Charles joined as the founding finance director in late 2022, bringing expertise in financial institutions and structured finance from his experience at several investment banks. He has advised and raised capital for many UK challenger banks such as Charter Court, Shawbrook, Secure Trust, Virgin Money and Metro Bank, and helped Starling raise its first capital.

Meet the Founders

<h2>The next steps</h2>
MONET closed their previous funding round in Q4 2022 with participation from investors, including a Monzo co-founder. They have since pivoted, with a £10.5m funding facility secured for the financial side of its business. The round was raised to support its pivot and sought to drive sales ahead of a 2023 institutional round and launched EarlyPay in the same time period. MONET are using this to enable them to service the existing demand and to seize the macro-opportunity through 2023.
With the groundwork laid out, MONET is now looking to raise equity though the easy-to-use private market platform, *FlowwMarkets.
*Floww Markets Limited is a company authorised and regulated by the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA). Firm reference number 980098.
The information and imagery contained within this article does not represent the opinions of Floww. Floww does not have a view on opinions provided by MONET in this article and elsewhere where they may be expressed, and is not responsible or liable for the information within this article

Sources
Visa &#8211; <a href="https://partner.visa.com/site/programs/visa-ready/creator-commerce.html">https://partner.visa.com/site/programs/visa-ready/creator-commerce.html </a>
Goldman Sachs &#8211; <a href="https://www.goldmansachs.com/insights/pages/the-creator-economy-could-approach-half-a-trillion-dollars-by-2027.html">https://www.goldmansachs.com/insights/pages/the-creator-economy-could-approach-half-a-trillion-dollars-by-2027.html</a>
Market size:<a href="https://monet-money.notion.site/Market-Size-and-Analysis-8fb672e48a1143f6ab7001e52c4f1edb"> https://monet-money.notion.site/Market-Size-and-Analysis-8fb672e48a1143f6ab7001e52c4f1edb </a>
IMH &#8211; <a href="https://influencermarketinghub.com/influencer-marketing-benchmark-report/">https://influencermarketinghub.com/influencer-marketing-benchmark-report/ </a>

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pubX has built an artificial neural network to predict the value that advertisers place on each auction, looking to level the advertiser/publisher playing field.
pubX believes that publishers, the creators of original content, drive the underlying value in the online publishing and advertising industries, but that they’ve been let down by a lack of technology to streamline their processes in the marketplace where the two sides interact and do business with one another. Through the benefits of agglomeration – it is believed that the majority of global media spend is controlled by a few media agencies, who are the benefactors of programmatic advertising technology. pubX therefore believes there is an opportunity to develop core technology for the other side of the marketplace, the recipients of the ad spend.
Allied Market Research revealed that the global programmatic display advertising market was valued at $451.3bn in 2021 and is projected to reach $9.5tn by 2031. In the same way advertisers buy spaces on television networks, they purchase display space and feature slots on websites where content &#8211; news, blogs, video content etc. are published. Programmatic advertising is the use of automated technology for media buying, the process of buying advertising space, as opposed to traditional, often manual, methods of digital advertising.
Founders Alex and Andrew realised that there was an imbalance in the advertiser/publisher ecosystem, and that while countless businesses were building AdTech, nobody was building ‘PubTech.’ They felt that this was not only an opportunity, but a structural problem – as if publishers cannot effectively monetise, they will disappear, and advertising dollars will only flow into online environments, such as Facebook’s walled garden where there are controls on a user’s access to network-based services and content.
<h2>What does pubX do?</h2>
pubX is building the future for digital publishers by bringing AI and automation to a section of an industry that relies on humans to create value against algorithms. The company is looking to level the advertiser/publisher playing field to create a fairer ecosystem that will help support the growth of digital publishers and the strength of the open web.
pubX strongly believe that a by-product of the technological asymmetry in the advertiser/publisher dynamic will be a fall in the quality of content on the open web. Although the drive for price efficiency in buying advertising is understandable, the price depression resulting from that search for efficiency is often to the detriment of publisher revenues.
<h2>How does pubX work?</h2>
As its first in-market product, pubX has developed a dynamic price floor tool, allowing digital publishers to drive incremental revenue by pricing each auction individually using the power of AI. It is a yield optimisation SaaS tool for publishers, leveraging a deep learning artificial neural network aiming to create revenue uplifts for its users.
To set it up, publishers insert the company’s analytics adapter into their existing tech stack via a single line of code using the header bidding script. pubX’s AI processes historical and real-time data before directly implementing dynamic optimisations, allowing publishers to monetise their ad inventory at the right price for them.
Moreover, the company deploys machine learning algorithms in programmatic advertising to help publishers price their inventory in real-time. Currently, advertisers buy publisher inventory in real-time, but publishers sell it through seldom-updated static rules. Pricing each ad auction independently can generate up to 20% of extra revenue for digital publishers.
<h2>Who is pubX helping?</h2>
Technologically, pubX operates in greenfield spaces, developing solutions to problems that haven’t yet been addressed, let alone solved. They look to serve a customer set that they believe has been structurally let down by major technology providers in the space, who through structural changes and reversals are no longer incentivised to have their customer’s best interests at heart.
The company looks to redress this balance by further developing the technology to solve their users’ specific pain points. It seeks to support publishers to prevent a future in which the internet is made up entirely of walled gardens.

Alex Rosen, CTO

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Andrew Mole, CEO

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Andrew Mole (CEO) and Alex Rosen (CTO) were part of the founding team that built and sold Platform360, a machine-learning powered demand side platform (DSP). It enabled advertisers to use machine learning to buy advertising for as low a price as possible while still being effective. Having spent 10 years building technology for the buy-side, Andrew saw the importance of bringing these learnings to publishers on the sell-side.

<h2>The next steps</h2>
pubX’s initial focus is on programmatic display and video, leveraging their expertise in building buying technology. With a whopping $155bn spent every year globally on programmatic display and video, the company is creating a brand known for helping the sell-side, with the goal to move horizontally to cover the entire industry.
In order to host their fundraise the pubX team has decided to fundraise through *FlowwMarkets. Thanks to its innovative technology and unique founder-friendly platform, fundraising and investor management is streamlined and simplified – a perfect fit for them.
*Floww Markets Limited is a company authorised and regulated by the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA). Firm reference number 980098. 
The information and imagery contained within this article does not represent the opinions of Floww. Floww does not have a view on opinions provided by pubX in this article and elsewhere where they may be expressed, and is not responsible or liable for the information within this article.

Sources
Technavio: <a href="https://www.technavio.com/report/digital-publishing-market-industry-analysis">https://www.technavio.com/report/digital-publishing-market-industry-analysis</a>
Allied Market Research: <a href="https://www.alliedmarketresearch.com/programmatic-display-advertising-market-A31468">https://www.alliedmarketresearch.com/programmatic-display-advertising-market-A31468</a>
Market: <a href="https://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/digital-publishing-market-size-to-increase-by-usd-105-96-billion-apac-to-account-for-42-of-market-growth---technavio-301746288.html">https://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/digital-publishing-market-size-to-increase-by-usd-105-96-billion-apac-to-account-for-42-of-market-growth&#8212;technavio-301746288.html</a>
What does pubX do: source: <a href="https://www.pubx.ai/what-we-do">https://www.pubx.ai/what-we-do</a>
What does pubX do: source: <a href="https://www.linkedin.com/company/pubxai/about/">https://www.linkedin.com/company/pubxai/about/</a>
Traction: <a href="https://www.pubx.ai/post/introducing_pubx">https://www.pubx.ai/post/introducing_pubx</a>
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Magical Mushroom Company® manufactures mushroom-based sustainable packaging.
They aim to become Europe&#8217;s largest sustainable packaging company, operating at a scale that will help make polystyrene packaging a thing of the past.
The need to reduce the use of plastic and move towards carbon neutrality is a necessity, and responsible businesses around the world are eager to do their part. However, finding a scalable, competitively priced alternative to polymer-based plastic is not a simple task.
Statistics platform Statista estimates that UK households throw away a staggering 100 billion pieces of plastic packaging a year, averaging 66 items per household, per week. 345 kilotonnes of this packaging every year is made from polystyrene and polyethylene foam. Although useful, these materials rely on petrochemicals for their production and cannot be recycled in the UK.
Magical Mushroom Company® (MMC) believe the environmental impact of polystyrene is not talked about enough. Commercial manufacturing of polystyrene began in the 1930s, and it is estimated that most pieces still exist today &#8211; most of them now in landfills. Being highly resistant to photolysis, polystyrene takes around 500 years to biodegrade. Even then, this introduces micro-plastics into the marine system and eventually the food chain, to the detriment of wildlife and humans.
By comparison, packaging made from mushrooms is fully biodegradable and biodigestable, so it can be recycled alongside food waste. It’s also suitable for anaerobic digestion, a process through which bacteria break down organic matter in the absence of oxygen. In addition, mushroom packaging can be broken down and reused to manufacture new packaging. Launched in 2019, Magical Mushroom Company® has grown to a scaling business that currently produces hundreds of thousands of pieces of packaging for a wide range of products and companies across Europe.
<img decoding="async" loading="lazy" class="alignnone wp-image-4007 size-medium" src="https://wp.floww.io//wp-content/uploads/2023/04/MMC-image--800x200.jpeg" alt="magical-mushroom-product-imagery-floww" width="800" height="200" srcset="https://wp.floww.io//wp-content/uploads/2023/04/MMC-image--800x200.jpeg 800w, https://wp.floww.io//wp-content/uploads/2023/04/MMC-image--768x192.jpeg 768w, https://wp.floww.io//wp-content/uploads/2023/04/MMC-image-.jpeg 1400w" sizes="(max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px" />
<h2>What does MMC do?</h2>
The company aims to render society’s reliance on polystyrene obsolete, accelerating the shift towards sustainable packaging. MMC’s packaging is a revolutionary alternative to traditional polystyrene, offering the same protective properties while being biodegradable and approved for use as a feedstock in anaerobic digestion plants.
By harnessing the natural flexibility and strength of mycelium, the material structure of fungi, MMC grows protective packaging by combining it with agricultural waste such as hemp, cork and sawdust. Mushroom packaging grown in MMC’s factories is a direct replacement for cardboard and single-use plastics, and packaging inserts such as die-cards.
The production process involves sourcing agricultural waste from regional farmers and using mycelium to bind it together into a high-performance material. After six days of growth and drying, the packaging is now an inert composite material and ready for use.
MMC believe their packaging competes with polystyrene in terms of price as well as performance, providing a reliable option for heavy items while being kind to the planet as it can also be repurposed or returned. With the new plastic tax, many businesses are seeking alternatives to polystyrene and other foams, and MMC offers an end-of-life solution for packaging that is only used for an average of 72 hours.
<h2>Who is MMC helping?</h2>
Since 2020, Magical Mushroom Company® has produced over two million pieces of mushroom packaging. This directly disrupts the polystyrene market. MMC believes they are the first company to have a serious, quantifiable impact on the fossil fuel-based foams industry. By 2025, the company aims to have effectively removed over 4,000 tonnes of EPS polystyrene packaging from landfills.
In replacing polystyrene as a packaging solution, the company is aiming to make a positive change to society and our environment.
<img decoding="async" loading="lazy" class="alignnone wp-image-4008 size-medium" src="https://wp.floww.io//wp-content/uploads/2023/04/MMC-Image-2-800x450.webp" alt="magical-mushroom-products-on-marble-floww" width="800" height="450" srcset="https://wp.floww.io//wp-content/uploads/2023/04/MMC-Image-2-800x450.webp 800w, https://wp.floww.io//wp-content/uploads/2023/04/MMC-Image-2-1600x900.webp 1600w, https://wp.floww.io//wp-content/uploads/2023/04/MMC-Image-2-768x432.webp 768w, https://wp.floww.io//wp-content/uploads/2023/04/MMC-Image-2-1536x864.webp 1536w, https://wp.floww.io//wp-content/uploads/2023/04/MMC-Image-2-2048x1152.webp 2048w" sizes="(max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px" />
<h2>How does MMC work?</h2>
According to MMC, clients expect to pay a maximum of 4% of their product value for protective packaging. Sustainable options are often thought to be more expensive and less sturdy. However, with increasing interest in sustainable packaging and companies striving to achieve their environmental goals, mushroom packaging has proved itself a reliable option even for heavy items such as sofas, heat pumps, and home audio systems. It provides physical protection while also being kind to the planet.
At present, the raw materials for MMC&#8217;s plant are supplied in pre-inoculated bags. This results in 90% of MMC&#8217;s measured carbon footprint being accounted for by the transporting of raw materials. The high cost of raw materials led to the MMC being awarded a £1.1m Innovate Loan to open Europe&#8217;s first liquid mycelium inoculation plant. This allows the company to control the supply and quality of its raw materials in-house, which is expected to reduce raw material costs and carbon footprint by 70%.

Paul Gilligan, founder and CEO  

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Paul is a highly experienced international manager with a broad range of industry experience. He spent 14 years in senior roles at Sainsbury&#8217;s, where he won several industry awards. 
After learning about mushroom packaging, Paul flew to visit the Mushroom Packaging patent holders and founders of Evocative, unannounced. He convinced them to start negotiations for an exclusive UK license. Paul founded MMC Holdings International Ltd, which controls all their subsidiary companies in the UK and Europe. Once the UK factory in Esher was up and running, Paul signed an exclusive license for the EU. 
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<h2><img decoding="async" loading="lazy" class="alignnone wp-image-4010 size-medium" src="https://wp.floww.io//wp-content/uploads/2023/04/artboard-1-1128x191-642c12a1a138215ac6fb2d1b@2x-800x135.png" alt="magical-mushroom-startup-banner-floww" width="800" height="135" srcset="https://wp.floww.io//wp-content/uploads/2023/04/artboard-1-1128x191-642c12a1a138215ac6fb2d1b@2x-800x135.png 800w, https://wp.floww.io//wp-content/uploads/2023/04/artboard-1-1128x191-642c12a1a138215ac6fb2d1b@2x-1600x271.png 1600w, https://wp.floww.io//wp-content/uploads/2023/04/artboard-1-1128x191-642c12a1a138215ac6fb2d1b@2x-768x130.png 768w, https://wp.floww.io//wp-content/uploads/2023/04/artboard-1-1128x191-642c12a1a138215ac6fb2d1b@2x-1536x260.png 1536w, https://wp.floww.io//wp-content/uploads/2023/04/artboard-1-1128x191-642c12a1a138215ac6fb2d1b@2x-2048x347.png 2048w" sizes="(max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px" /></h2>
<h2>The next steps</h2>
Magical Mushroom Company® has a strong list of current customers and partners, which includes international brands such as Diageo, Raymarine, BA Components, and Ffern. The company has signed three major multi-year supply contracts.
MMC aims to capture 5% of the EPS market in the UK by 2025. They believe this will remove approximately 10 kilotonnes of EPS from landfills. By 2040, with mass adoption of sustainable packaging solutions, the company expects to remove 30% of EPS from the market.
MMC also plans to build at least 10 factories across the UK and EU, and as of 2023 the company has witnessed growing customer numbers in France, Italy, and Germany. By 2028, it plans to open five additional production plants. Their Attenborough factory is currently expanding its production capacity and they believe it will be operating at 90% capacity by June 2023. Their Sofia plant has three times the production capacity of the Attenborough factory, and an additional factory is currently being built in Beeston, Nottinghamshire.
Given the scale of the problem that Magical Mushroom Company® is addressing, the team has decided to fundraise through *FlowwMarkets. Thanks to its innovative technology and unique founder-friendly platform, fundraising and investor management is streamlined and simplified – a perfect fit for them.
*Floww Markets Limited is a company authorised and regulated by the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA). Firm reference number 980098. 
The information contained within this article does not represent the opinions of Floww. Floww does not have a view on opinions provided by Magical Mushroom Company in this article and elsewhere where they may be expressed, and is not responsible or liable for the information within this article.

Sources:
Plastic in the UK: <a href="https://www.statista.com/topics/4918/plastic-waste-in-the-united-kingdom-uk/">https://www.statista.com/topics/4918/plastic-waste-in-the-united-kingdom-uk/</a>
Global plastic market size: <a style="overflow-wrap: break-word;" href="https://www.researchandmarkets.com/reports/5394064/united-kingdom-plastic-packaging-market">https://www.researchandmarkets.com/reports/5394064/united-kingdom-plastic-packaging-market</a>
Magical Mushroom Company website: <a href="https://magicalmushroom.com/">https://magicalmushroom.com/</a>
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Insurance plays a fundamental role in our lives, protecting both individuals and companies from financial risks or losses. The EY 2021 Global Insurance Consumer Survey found that the Covid-19 pandemic’s powerful financial and psychological effects were felt most intensely by younger consumers and in emerging markets. Given increased consumer interest, there is a tremendous opportunity for insurers to develop accessible, purpose-led solutions and updated distribution channels.
Recently, digital technology has revolutionised the way we live, work and socialise. However, it can be said that traditional insurance companies have not kept up with technological advancements, and some have not adapted to the needs of modern consumers. Their offerings can be outdated and inflexible. With the rise of the digital economy and the remote working revolution, many modern consumers have changed how they live and work, and have an increasing number of valuable items on their person every day. They need insurance that reflects their fast-paced, digitally entwined lifestyles.
The Reinsurance Group of America reports that millennials in particular are underserved by today’s insurance market, and EY research shows that the digitally savvy demographic vastly prefers handling their insurance through online channels. Over 70% are likely to purchase some form of insurance digitally, and nearly 60% prefer contacting their agents or brokers digitally. Millennials and Gen Z form a huge segment of the market, and they need a simple digital insurance solution.
A 2021 article by The Future of Commerce states that the overriding public perception of insurance companies is that of “a necessary evil”. In addition, it claims that most people view their insurance providers with ambivalence &#8211; they are seen as needed, but not liked or trusted, as a lot of traditional providers still tend to rely on processes that are outdated and complex.
After experiencing first-hand how difficult it can be to get insurance in the UK, co-founders Scott McKenna and André de Neergaard realised that there was a unique opportunity to disrupt, digitise, and simplify the insurance industry. Frustrated with the often-lengthy processes required to make claims, they thought: why not create a product that can provide a quote in 90 seconds, and cover within minutes? They teamed up to create something that people would not only want to use, but love to use. This led to the inception of careless.
<img decoding="async" loading="lazy" class="alignnone wp-image-3974 size-medium" src="https://wp.floww.io//wp-content/uploads/2023/03/Careless-product-shot-800x393.png" alt="careless-lifestyle-shot-floww" width="800" height="393" srcset="https://wp.floww.io//wp-content/uploads/2023/03/Careless-product-shot-800x393.png 800w, https://wp.floww.io//wp-content/uploads/2023/03/Careless-product-shot-1600x785.png 1600w, https://wp.floww.io//wp-content/uploads/2023/03/Careless-product-shot-768x377.png 768w, https://wp.floww.io//wp-content/uploads/2023/03/Careless-product-shot-1536x754.png 1536w, https://wp.floww.io//wp-content/uploads/2023/03/Careless-product-shot-2048x1005.png 2048w" sizes="(max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px" />
<h2>What is careless doing in the insurance space?</h2>
Ultimately, careless aims to change the public perception of insurance. Designed specifically for digital natives, users will be able to insure any item, old or new, in a matter of minutes. In addition to its ease of use and transparency, careless is creating a strong lifestyle brand, and will build a loyal community of individuals who have previously been overlooked by the industry. The platform aims to provide comprehensive product offerings that will cover the changing insurance needs of users throughout their lives.
careless aim to initially address the £5bn personal-items insurance market in the UK. Its flexible personal item insurance will be aimed at a currently underserved generation. By offering solutions that are in line with today’s technology, careless will also convert existing insurance customers who are fed up with the non-digital experience offered by many traditional players.
<img decoding="async" loading="lazy" class="alignnone wp-image-3972 size-medium" src="https://wp.floww.io//wp-content/uploads/2023/03/MicrosoftTeams-image-800x533.jpg" alt="careless-group-photo-floww" width="800" height="533" srcset="https://wp.floww.io//wp-content/uploads/2023/03/MicrosoftTeams-image-800x533.jpg 800w, https://wp.floww.io//wp-content/uploads/2023/03/MicrosoftTeams-image-1600x1067.jpg 1600w, https://wp.floww.io//wp-content/uploads/2023/03/MicrosoftTeams-image-768x512.jpg 768w, https://wp.floww.io//wp-content/uploads/2023/03/MicrosoftTeams-image-1536x1024.jpg 1536w, https://wp.floww.io//wp-content/uploads/2023/03/MicrosoftTeams-image.jpg 1890w" sizes="(max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px" />
<h2>Who are careless hoping to help?</h2>
According to Global Data research, in 2021 the UK insurance market was valued at £70bn. However, there is a real gap in the market. Property Claim Assist reports that while there are over 22.6 million homes in the UK, over six million of these do not have any form of home insurance. In addition, a report from Admiral Home Insurance shows that in London alone, 45% of homes are not insured. careless’ internal research shows that 76% &#8211; or 38 million people &#8211; in the UK do not have mobile insurance, and 89% &#8211; or 46 million people &#8211; do not have gadget insurance.
Many of these figures are attributed to younger people, put off buying insurance cover by the often lengthy, complex processes required by many traditional insurance providers and brokers. In fact, a study by Insurance Age shows that the Millennial and Gen-Z markets are most likely to not have any insurance cover; these tech-savvy generations often do not resonate with the current insurance industry. careless aims to provide insurance value and convenience to these digital natives who need more engaging and better curated offerings, as well as customisable insurance solutions.
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<img decoding="async" loading="lazy" class="alignnone wp-image-3973 size-medium" src="https://wp.floww.io//wp-content/uploads/2023/03/Careless-white-800x533.jpg" alt="careless-group-photo-portrait-floww" width="800" height="533" srcset="https://wp.floww.io//wp-content/uploads/2023/03/Careless-white-800x533.jpg 800w, https://wp.floww.io//wp-content/uploads/2023/03/Careless-white-1600x1067.jpg 1600w, https://wp.floww.io//wp-content/uploads/2023/03/Careless-white-768x512.jpg 768w, https://wp.floww.io//wp-content/uploads/2023/03/Careless-white-1536x1024.jpg 1536w, https://wp.floww.io//wp-content/uploads/2023/03/Careless-white.jpg 1890w" sizes="(max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px" />
<h2>How does careless work?</h2>
The careless app will provide personal items insurance, with streamlined insurance options for a customer’s particular needs. It also offers full coverage for work and leisure with one flat excess fee. And coverage is not limited to the UK – careless aims to have their customers’ back, wherever they are.
The application process is simple. Customers choose an item to insure from a list of options on the app, provide their information through a secure chatbot, then receive their quote and purchase their insurance package directly through the app. Customised quotes are generally generated within 90 seconds, and coverage is activated in minutes. In addition, all claims are automated and customer support is available around the clock.

Scott Mckenna, Co-founder

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scott mckenna

André de Neergaard, Co-founder

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Scott was born and raised in South Africa and moved to the UK in 2013. He holds a bachelor’s degree in Global Financial Management from the University of Cape Town and Regents University, London.
Scott has a background in finance, first working in wealth management before moving into e-commerce venture incubation. He has incubated and operated five D2C retail brands, with products in over 127 countries. Scott has also launched two standalone agencies offering in-house services in the brand incubation and influencer digital marketing sectors.
Having worked with over 35 businesses and founders, Scott found himself drawn to the exploration of potential opportunities in underserved and developing markets in the UK. After meeting André, they decided to create a company together that could change the insurance landscape.
André launched his first business – a technology consultancy firm – when he was just 16. He holds a master&#8217;s degree in accounting and finance from the London School of Economics, and a bachelor&#8217;s degree in finance from Cass Business School and the University of Hong Kong.
After moving to London from Sweden, André quickly identified a lack of technological innovation in the financial industry, particularly given the emergence of neobanks and robo-advisory platforms. Driven by his passion for technology and his exposure to entrepreneurship, he joined a technology-focused hedge fund after spending more than 3 years in investment banking at Citigroup and launched the company’s first growth fund. André played a key role in fundraising and investing over $100m in disruptive tech companies such as Bolt Technologies, Neo4j, Monzo, and Revolut.
André’s experience with startups and investments inspired him to start his own disruptive technology company. Ultimately, this led him to cross paths with Scott. After discussing their experiences of securing insurance and making claims in the UK, they joined forces to try and change the insurance industry through technology.

<h2>Looking to the future</h2>
Since inception in 2022, careless has established several partnerships with companies including Hypesight, Stubben Edge, and Our Social Creative. careless have been an Appointed Representative of Stubben Edge since February 2023. Stubben Edge is a firm authorised and regulated by the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) FRN: 943286. careless aims to launch its app publicly in May 2023.
careless is currently focused on developing a seamless user experience and product offering through its app, to maximise its value proposition for a currently underserved digital-native demographic. Following optimal product delivery and target market penetration, careless looks to further develop its product offering to tap into additional insurance categories.
*Floww Markets Limited is a company authorised and regulated by the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA). Firm reference number 980098. 
The information contained within this article does not represent the opinions of Floww. Floww does not have a view on opinions provided by careless in this article and elsewhere where they may be expressed, and is not responsible or liable for the information within this article.

Sources:
Source UK Insurance market: <a href="https://www.globaldata.com/store/report/uk-general-insurance-market-analysis/">https://www.globaldata.com/store/report/uk-general-insurance-market-analysis/</a>
Source: RGOA <a href="https://www.rgare.com/media/press-releases/2022/12/08/rga-launches-plan-v-care-in-partnership-with-cov%C3%A9a-and-direct-life-to-expand-digital-distribution-capabilities">https://www.rgare.com/media/press-releases/2022/12/08/rga-launches-plan-v-care-in-partnership-with-cov%C3%A9a-and-direct-life-to-expand-digital-distribution-capabilities</a>
Source: <a href="https://www.ey.com/en_gl/insurance/how-can-insurance-protect-the-customers-who-need-it-most">https://www.ey.com/en_gl/insurance/how-can-insurance-protect-the-customers-who-need-it-most</a>
Source: Property Claim Assist <a href="https://propertyclaimassist.co.uk/5-home-insurance-statistics-you-need-to-know/">https://propertyclaimassist.co.uk/5-home-insurance-statistics-you-need-to-know/</a>
Source: Admiral <a href="https://www.admiral.com/magazine/news-and-current-affairs/one-in-four-UK-homes-doesnt-have-contents-insurance">https://www.admiral.com/magazine/news-and-current-affairs/one-in-four-UK-homes-doesnt-have-contents-insurance</a>
Insurance age: <a href="https://www.insuranceage.co.uk/insurer/3699476/uk-millennials-and-generation-z-most-likely-to-not-have-insurance">https://www.insuranceage.co.uk/insurer/3699476/uk-millennials-and-generation-z-most-likely-to-not-have-insurance</a>
Personal item insurance market: <a href="https://www.globaldata.com/store/report/uk-household-insurance-market-analysis/">https://www.globaldata.com/store/report/uk-household-insurance-market-analysis/</a>
Perception of insurance companies: <a href="https://www.the-future-of-commerce.com/2021/01/28/perception-of-insurance/">https://www.the-future-of-commerce.com/2021/01/28/perception-of-insurance/</a>

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As of 2023, the environmental, social, and governance (ESG) reporting for companies in the UK has been formalised through the implementation of Sustainability Disclosure Requirements (SDRs). SDRs provide a framework for companies to manage sustainability-related risks, opportunities and impacts, as well as set relevant metrics and targets. With these new requirements coming into play, there’s a growing obligation for companies to accurately monitor and report their social value impact, with fully mandatory disclosure expected by 2025. 
According to the National Philanthropic Trust, corporate giving in 2021 increased to $21.08 billion &#8211; a 23.8% increase from 2020. However, it’s not an easy task for a business to find and help the right charity for them, and despite the increasing attention from businesses to social values, there is still a disconnect in the market. According to IIC’s internal research on charity inequality, 75% of all corporate giving goes to just 1% of charities.  
IIC co-founders Philip Webb and Dave Clarkson recognised that businesses needed better support in their ESG reporting, and that an end-to-end platform would benefit the execution of corporate social responsibility activities. Alongside this, they saw that local charitable and community groups were fighting a losing battle against larger, more visible groups in the constant quest for corporate funding. They came to the realisation that they were uniquely skilled to build an infrastructure that combined blockchain technology with ESG reporting and charity work.
This is how IIC was born: an audit-based SaaS platform that enables companies of all sizes to correctly coordinate, track, verify and evidence their community-based support programmes.  
<h2>The problems IIC are tackling</h2>
Businesses, individuals and charities are all experiencing issues with traditional philanthropic procedures. The corporate giving sector is both immature and fragmented, as auditable and consolidated activity reporting is currently missing. Supply chain and consumer pressures, along with high expectations from financial stakeholders, are driving businesses to change their approach, as they are now expected to measure and report activity with full transparency. 
According to the London School of Economics, the total number of ESG-related legal actions issued globally almost doubled between 2017 and 2020. While it sounds easy to donate to or support causes, the process can be complex for corporations. Laws and regulations are in place to ensure that a company’s ESG efforts yield real impact and results. Although they are required to evidence their ESG efforts, there is currently no easy way to do so; it&#8217;s difficult to calculate the tangible impact of the support that takes place. 
And as businesses are giving more importance to ESG efforts, the younger generations in their workforces are increasingly engaged in philanthropic activities. IIC’s internal research has found that Gen Z, a notably switched-on generation who are now entering the workforce, often want to work for companies with implemented community support activities that they can get involved in. 
<h2>How IIC can help</h2>
IIC’s founders want to provide the perfect opportunity to build a movement for good that’s driven by business involvement, providing conditions for a win-win outcome. 
The company aims to help facilitate the creation of a better world by providing a cloud-based digital SaaS platform, which empowers corporate social responsibility activities and bridges an important gap in the market. Put simply, the IIC platform helps individuals participate in charitable activities, businesses to track their ESG impact, and local charities to connect with potential donors. 
They bring businesses of all sizes together with individuals and charities. Their starting point is to provide businesses with auditable and trusted reports covering their social value work. By combining ESG tracking, philanthropy, and an in-platform tokenised rewards system (Community Credits™️), they aim to ensure that everyone benefits. 
IIC provides verifiable data and reports by way of transactions written into the IBM blockchain. The verified data can then be viewed by the business, and this end-to-end tracking of donations helps evidence their ESG activity and its impact, which is increasingly necessary within tenders and supply chain responses. 
The platform has profiles and dashboards for businesses, charities, and individuals. It enables employees to engage in charitable activities with in-built reporting to their employer, and helps companies calculate and report on the value of their social impact. Charities, schools, not-for-profits, and community groups can use the platform to host live charity projects and community support activities. 
Businesses subscribe to the service with either a monthly or annual subscription, whereas individuals and charities aren’t charged for the service. For these groups, there’s no monthly fee, no deductions from donations, no credit card or transaction fees. Furthermore, 100% of the money donated through the platform stays in the third sector. 
<h2>What IIC are doing in the space</h2>
IIC offers a simple yet comprehensive solution to engaging with and reporting on charitable activities by connecting businesses, their employees, and charities. The platform aims to be a one-stop-shop for businesses to measure, manage, audit and report on community outreach activity and impact, and to deliver against any required ESG reporting. 
IIC are striving to be the first-to-market to address and solve the problem of auditability – giving companies authentic, evidenced social impact reports. They also aim to address the problem of visibility for smaller charities by providing a way to engage a company’s employees and charities &#8211; facilitating volunteering, donations, fundraisers, and gifting.  
Any act of giving through the platform generates Community Credits, a unifying measure of social impact, collected by individuals and businesses. Looking forward, Community Credits hope to become linked to real-world retail offers, creating a true circular economy. Community Credits are already being used by businesses to track employee involvement, provide league tables, and create internal rewards; by grouping people or businesses, a system of transparency is evident. IIC also gives companies real-time access to all staff charity activity data where available to the public, documentation, social value reports and analytics.

Philip Webb, Co-founder and Managing Director

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Dave Clarkson, Co-founder

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Philip began his career with IBM, where he quickly became their youngest ever International Support Specialist for EMEA. He&#8217;s the Founder and Managing Director of TAM UK, a firm specialising in organisational development; he trains clients at an MBA level, including finance, strategy, communications, project management, and organisational governance. He is also a qualified NLP Business Practitioner and a published author of four books. 
Dave has a background in sales, marketing, and brand management with national and regional businesses. He co-founded The Family Business Community in 2014, and currently champions the family business sector of the company.

<h2>Looking to the future</h2>
Philip anticipates that as the legislation around the Social Value Act starts to take effect, the concept of charity equality and the creating of relationships between businesses and the community will drive IIC towards growth. He believes that essentially, IIC could become the catalyst for levelling up society. 
The company plans on expanding across the UK. In 2023, IIC aims to launch a mobile app access point to the platform. It also plans to develop and build a new exchange portal, to allow the swapping of Community Credits earned in the giving process with retail and service offerings across the UK. From 2024 onwards IIC plan to provide an international platform, using the IBM blockchain upon which the platform is built as an efficient and rapid deployment infrastructure. 
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*Floww Markets Limited is a company authorised and regulated by the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA). Firm reference number 980098. 
The information contained within this article does not represent the opinions of Floww. Floww does not have a view on opinions provided by IIC in this article and elsewhere where they may be expressed, and is not responsible or liable for the information within this article.

Sources:
Gov UK: <a href="https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/greening-finance-a-roadmap-to-sustainable-investing">https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/greening-finance-a-roadmap-to-sustainable-investing</a> 
KPMG: <a href="https://kpmg.com/uk/en/blogs/home/posts/2022/05/mandatory-esg-reporting.html">https://kpmg.com/uk/en/blogs/home/posts/2022/05/mandatory-esg-reporting.html</a> 
NPTrust: <a href="https://www.nptrust.org/philanthropic-resources/charitable-giving-statistics/">https://www.nptrust.org/philanthropic-resources/charitable-giving-statistics/</a> 
Civil Society: <a href="https://www.civilsociety.co.uk/news/the-uk-must-take-action-in-order-to-seize-180bn-philanthropy-opportunity-report-says.html">https://www.civilsociety.co.uk/news/the-uk-must-take-action-in-order-to-seize-180bn-philanthropy-opportunity-report-says.html</a> 
Beacon Collective statistics: <a href="https://www.civilsociety.co.uk/news/the-uk-must-take-action-in-order-to-seize-180bn-philanthropy-opportunity-report-says.html">https://www.civilsociety.co.uk/news/the-uk-must-take-action-in-order-to-seize-180bn-philanthropy-opportunity-report-says.html</a> 
Forbes: <a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/forbesnonprofitcouncil/2021/12/27/the-future-of-giving-trends-shaping-next-gen-philanthropy/">https://www.forbes.com/sites/forbesnonprofitcouncil/2021/12/27/the-future-of-giving-trends-shaping-next-gen-philanthropy/ </a>

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