Today at Web Summit, Bsavi, a new personal finance startup, announced that it's launching its invite-only private BETA mobile application, a money management tool that helps people save money as they plan to spend on a daily basis.
Unlike conventional budgeting apps, Bsavi is a spend management tool that shows users exactly how much they can spend on a daily basis after all their planned and fixed expenses have been accounted for.
Most people get paid on the first of each month and by the 15th are already broke. From thereon forward they rely on mental accounting skills to count the days until their next pay cheque arrives. Bsavi solves this problem with its single purpose feature called "Daily Available Cash", which acts as the catalyst for many forthcoming features such as credit monitoring, mobile payments, crowd savings and more.
"We live in the age of social networks, Google Now, and Artificial Intelligence, all of which have already started to shift the paradigm in how we connect, communicate and transact in the information age. Banking tomorrow won't be a place you go to but something that you do. We aim to integrate into the way everyday people live, work and play with their money, essentially becoming the Google Now of personal finance" says Tobie van Zyl, CEO and founder of Bsavi.
The Cape Town-based startup set out to disrupt and reinvent the global financial ecosystem with its world-first social, financial data transaction exchange for banks, credit providers and retail and commerce companies to securely connect to users' financial graphs on their own terms. The company calls their financial graph API (Application Programming Interface) The Shift_Ctrl Engine. The aim of The Shift_Ctrl Engine is to allow the online world to organise itself better around consumers financial demographics and preferences, delivering valuable and relevant on-demand services.
"With the world becoming more open and connected, we're leveraging the power of Artificial and Proprietary Financial Algorithmic Intelligence to make this possible," says Van Zyl. "Imagine waking up knowing exactly what method of transport you can use, where to buy your groceries and automatically have your weekend planned from a daily affordability perspective."
By utilising the power of the Shift_Ctrl Engine, Bsavi acts as an origination service for third-party companies like banks and credit providers as well as offering a platform for third-party companies to develop apps for their user base. Similar to that of Facebook Connect, the "Bsavi-Connect" button can be added to these companies' websites or mobile apps to allow users to securely transact with their information and, in return, be offered better products and services based on real-time, accurate and authentic data. Users have full control over their data and for the first time are able to control what banks, credit providers and retailers can retrieve and store on their databases.
Limitless Technology Group, the company behind Bsavi, has already begun piloting its Shift_Ctrl Engine with a few leading financial services providers in South Africa, originating credit applications for people with little or no credit scores. Previously declined consumers can now pass more holistic data to financial services providers to have them improve the process by which they vet and pre-qualify new credit customers.
Limitless Technology Group has over 70 000 customers across all its products, such as moneysmart.co.za and Credit Crunch. By consolidating all the core key features into Bsavi, Van Zyl believes his users will now have the most personalised money management experience ever.