Finect — Financial simulators & services.
Helping people make better financial decisions.
Finect is an investment platform that helps people make smarter financial decisions through interactive tools and services. Our collaboration began when they reached out in the early days of their simulator tools, what they called "pills". They needed a solid foundation for these simulations, so we spent two months designing and building the engine that would power them all.
What started as a short engagement soon turned into something bigger. A year later, Finect came back with a proposal for a long-term partnership. Over the next 18 months, we worked side by side to define best practices, modernize their tech stack, and design and build multiple new services for their platform.
My contribution
Product design, Frontend developement, Process design, Standards definition.
Collaboration timeline
First phase: Mid 2017 — Second phase: 2018 · 2019
Phase I: Financial simulators framework
When Finect (at the time, the result of a merger between Moneymatic and Unience) approached us (Topxel), they were in the early stages of creating a set of simulation tools, or "pills", to help investors analyze different scenarios and make better financial decisions. The problem was, they were already signing agreements with major media outlets before they even had a product or a demo to show.
In just eight weeks, our challenge was to design and build the foundation of their simulator engine from the ground up, while also delivering four fully functional simulators for the launch. To make things even more interesting, we had to do it with no backend, no API contract, and a brand that was still being defined.
That first launch set the tone. In the months that followed, more than 50 simulators were deployed based on that framework on Finect's platform. They were adopted by banks and leading digital media outlets in Spain, and eventually became one of the company's main data sources, driving more than 30% of its annual revenue.
Phase II: Growing the platform
When we joined this second phase, things weren't in the best shape. The platform had been stalled for more than a year because of a re-write, investors were starting to lose confidence, and there was a clear gap between the company’s value proposition and what the product actually offered. To make matters harder, there was no design team, almost no development team, and no processes in place.
In that context, we rolled up our sleeves and got to work. We designed and built new services like the Adviser Market, a community Q&A section where financial experts could answer questions, and both private and public chats to connect investors with advisers or peers. We also improved and revamped key areas of the platform along the way, and worked on defining best practices, establishing design and development guidelines, and modernizing the tech stack piece by piece.
The impact was significant. Finect was able to secure important investments during this period, including BME acquiring 9.7% of the company in February 2018, and INDRA joining in November 2018 to boost their open banking initiatives. Beyond funding, the Adviser Market opened up a new revenue stream, three new products were shipped, key services were revamped, and the platform started to grow again with more signups.
