New AI-powered retail investing platform Kreesibl launches

Kreesibl is a new AI-powered FinTech platform that has been launched by a black female tech founder who hoped to help millennials with their financial wellness journey after struggling with her own.

The company was created by Lydia Ofori, who faced many challenges when building the platform. One of these included a lack of excitement when speaking with trusted colleagues and industry acquaintances when looking to create the tool with one of the big houses. Another disappointment was securing enough funding to get the platform off the ground, she said.

These obstacles didn’t dissuade Ofori from continuing.

She migrated to London from Ghana with her family when she was in her teens, but really started to focus on her career path after relocating to Aberdeen.

Ofori studied business management at Robert Gordon University, kickstarting her sights on investment management. After graduating, Ofori did a Master’s degree in financial management. However, after her father’s sudden passing, her sole financier, she had to find an alternative way to pay for the course. She made a deal with the university to pay the course in instalments and worked two jobs to meet payments.

Ofori said, “Ever since I was a little girl, my dad always told me to become an expert in whatever I’m passionate about. He said that there’s nothing worse than someone talking about something they have no knowledge of. This has stuck with me ever since.”

It was her tutor at university that suggested she do the CFA charter. “I was so determined to get through to the end as there was – and still is – a huge lack of women, or let alone black women, in the industry,” she added.

After her degrees, Ofori joined a large asset management firm in Aberdeen where she analysed investment portfolios for three years. She spent many years working in senior positions at hedge funds, asset managers and private equity firms.

She also became the London representative of VC4Africa, an aggregator for startups based in Amsterdam. In this role she mentored startups and entrepreneurs in Africa. Ofori also headed the Mid-Career Programming for the Professional Women’s Network and participated in Women Committees at BNY Mellon. Additionally, she spent five years on the Continuing Education for the CFA Society of the UK and over three years in a committee for 100 Women in Finance.

“These were moments when I realised just how much I loved helping people. I enjoyed being part of a support ecosystem and the excitement around startups. But there’s a difference between excitement and actually doing business and launching a start-up.”

Ofori started looking at her own experiences and what she could do next. She also looked at how millennials are approaching their finances and the challenges they are facing.

“I recognised how quickly Millennials are taking to self-investing as a means of diversifying their income to reach an optimal financial wellness state but grew exceedingly concerned that not enough is being done to provide tools that will help Millennials to make the right decisions.”

In February 2020, Ofori launched Hunter Labs Technologies. It had the goal of helping millennials take control of their life and encourage them to be more aware of their finances. “However, the path to bringing about change is not without its trials. Raising capital alone, for a woman and for a black woman to launch the project is a double challenge. But obstacles are designed to show us the way. This was my chance to overcome another one.

After a year and a half of building and testing, the AI tool Kreesibl. A lot of focus was put on creating sentiment-driven learning technologies, which aims to pick the right industries for investing before the companies – typically it is the other way around. This way evaluates industries that are on-trend and have a higher potential return on investment, it said.

The platform aggregates views from professional investors and consumers to provide a clear understanding of the most attractive sectors, industries and countries. This can then be used to build portfolios of stocks, ETFs and funds.

“My goal is to create a social aspect that revolves around finances – chatting with family and friends about investing. I want to turn this nation into one that isn’t shy about discussing money.”

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