These founders are building a finance app just for women

Martina Gstöttmayr and Alexa Cotiaux want to get women to finally take charge of their finances. The waiting list for their app is already long.

The fact that Martina Gstöttmayr and Alexa Cotiaux are sitting together in the video call this Friday is, like so much in the start-up scene, due to chance. A few months ago, they were each working on their own business model for women, and it could have been something in the direction of a career. Through their network, however, they found each other, talked on the phone, it was a good fit, and they threw themselves into the initial research.

Many interviews with women later, they emerged a few weeks later, a little exhausted, but also with a clear result: "The biggest pain point for women is not their career," says Martina Gstöttmayr, "it is definitely the topic of finances. That's where women need to finally get into action."

In fact, studies show that women still take too little care of their finances. According to a large-scale study by the Swiss bank UBS, the topic of finances in most relationships is still the man's responsibility, many are not even properly involved and often experience a nasty surprise in the event of a divorce, for example, and this spans generations. But not only in relationships, but also in general women save and invest differently, as surveys among other things of financial heroines together with Barkow Consulting show. According to this, the share quota for women is lower than for men and the savings behavior does not lead to "any asset accumulation in the long term".

Most women are well informed, but still do not act

So is it because of a lack of knowledge that women are not preparing for the future? What is certain is that women often spend a long time thinking about their finances in greater depth, which also explains the success of blogs like "Madame Moneypenny," which now reach a large audience with financial tips for women. And the small survey conducted by Uplyvt's founders also shows that women do inform themselves, sometimes even in great detail. "In the end, however, they end up doing nothing. That's exactly where the gap is. They lack the last step, the support, that they come into action," says Alexa Cotiaux.

The two women want to solve the problem with their start-up Uplyvt, which they have been ramping up in recent weeks. Because of their backgrounds, the two do most of the work themselves. Gstöttmayr has already worked in various startups, which helps with development, and Cotiaux, as a former management consultant for digital models, brings experience in setting them up. Where they can't get ahead themselves, that's where the network helps out. "Without the network, we wouldn't be where we are now," says Alexa Cotiaux.

What the financial advisor used to offer, we do digitally.

Martina Gstöttmayr, Co-Founder of Uplyvt

Uplyvt, which is to become an app tailored specifically to the financial needs of women. Female customers are to receive regular reminders and concrete tips when it's time to act. To this end, the preparation of the information is to be geared more to the needs of women: "We want to provide much more explanation for the implementation of financial decisions and also map factors other than just returns," says Martina Gstöttmayr.

In addition, the app is intended to depict scenarios of what could happen to the money if the customer were to choose option A or option B now. "We want to show what the consequences of each action could be," says Gstöttmayr, "so that women have a better idea of what their action, or lack of action, will trigger."

The waiting list for Uplyvt's app is long

Trading yourself and buying securities, for example, will not be available on Uplyvt for the time being. Instead, users will more or less have a digital advisor at their side. "What the financial advisor has offered so far, we do digitally," says Gstöttmayr. How they want to price this service is not yet entirely certain, but they can imagine a subscription model with monthly costs of three to ten euros.

First, however, the app has to be finished. They want to test a first version with selected users, get feedback and develop it together with the customers. There is already a waiting list for this and it is extremely well filled, even without a big campaign, as the founders report. In general, the feedback in the social media has been very positive. "I think we've found a good niche there," says Cotiaux, who is also aware of the competition. "We're certainly not the only ones building a solution like this right now," she says.

One question remains: will they one day include men in the app? "I don't want to rule anything out," says Gstöttmayr, "but there's actually enough for men. We see enough potential and challenge with a focus on women."

(Photo: Startbase)

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