Fair by Design is a social impact fund supported by charities including Big Society Capital, Nominet Trust, and the Joseph Rowntree Foundation.
Portfolio
4
companies
Guardian Angel
Guardian Angel provides digital tools and planning services for end-of-life administration.
Homeppl
Homeppl provides a tenant referencing platform that assesses financial risk and detects rental fraud.
SuperFi
SuperFi operates a digital debt prevention platform designed to help consumers manage monthly bills and avoid financial distress.
Wagestream
Wagestream operates a service allowing workers to access their monthly wages in real time.
The pre-seed round was led by Ascension and includes grant backing from the Greater London Authority.
"We believe that debt management should be proactive, not reactive. Our goal is to help millions of people struggling to pay their bills and credit commitments better manage their debt before it becomes a crisis. In doing so, we believe we can help British people during the cost of living crisis – saving businesses and society billions associated with problem debt."
The financing comprises equity led by Smash Capital and BlackRock alongside debt from Silicon Valley Bank.
"Financial exclusion and a rising cost of living have created severe financial stress for hard-working people around the world,"
The early seed round was led by Fair By Design with participation from GC Angels and Ascension Ventures.
"On top of the obvious grief and shock, I discovered that the end-of-life industry was expensive and difficult to navigate, especially in an intensely emotional time. The industry had been largely untouched by technological innovation and needed to rapidly modernise."
The funding round was led by Ascension Ventures and will support team growth across research and development, operations, and sales.
"The rental market has used old credit check methods to assess whether a tenant can afford to pay. We need to stop imposing an unfair “tenant tax” on consumers and stop giving landlords false confidence – it’s time the market used a solution that’s fair for both sides and prioritises giving an accurate assessment. The pandemic is compounding this problem and has reinforced the need for a robust due diligence tool."
The funding round was backed by investors including QED Investors, Village Global, and the London Mayor's Co-Investment Fund.
