Nexves, a plucky FinTech startup exceeding all expectations of what your Bank Account is Capable of
Who is behind Nexves?
I am Chris Herd, founder of Nexves. I am an entrepreneur who believes the internet and technology should enable the world to be a far better place. I have led multi-million pound international refurbishment projects, startup growth across an entire nation, sat on the board of directors for a social enterprise managing £80m worth of housing stock and advised a number of businesses on their growth strategies and innovation initiatives. I am bootstrapping Nexves while continuing as a semi-pro footballer in the highland league.
Our principal engineer has seen first-hand what we are up against. A former senior developer at JP Morgan Chase, verteran of the US military cyber security space and a few personal startups, Trey is leading the charge on the implementation of our product vision.
Our investor is a veteran of disruption. The founder/CEO of, perhaps, the most disruptive Scottish unicorn of the last decade, we believe we have the right mix of expertise, passion and guile to leave a mark on the industry.
Why did you decide to launch your own fintech?
About a year ago I was in the process of deciding my next career move. While talking to Venture Capitalists, MBA Programmes, Large Startups and investors it became clear that my vision of the world was radically different than the future most of them saw. That inspired me to explore the things I was seeing in far more detail. I had the offer of investment in a few product ideas I had previously conceived but during further research phases with potential consumers it became clear that what I was trying to create was a feature of a platform and not the product itself. Those conversation helped crystallise the idea for Nexves in my mind.
At the same time, I was beginning to spot patterns of issues experienced by my family and friends. Why was my Grandmother paying 3X what my parents were for the same service from Sky, my brother paying 2X more than I was for the same mobile phone contract, or my sister paying more for her flat insurance than I was for my house? Fundamentally, I surmised, these were intelligence problems which could be solved by technology. Who had the information needed to fill these knowledge gaps? Our banks. Open banking in particular inspired me to dream of potential application, enabling innovation which was previously impossible.
Banks were facing their own problems. Interest rates have plummeted to levels which are borderline offensive while making us poorer (interest lower than inflation) and governments are overseeing legislation which ensures the wealth gap continues to widen. When I considered the implications of all these things it became clear that a financial platform could operate at the intersection of spending, saving, investing and tokenisation which would let us harness the power and influence of large-scale collaboration. Banks have hundreds of thousands of customers, imagine group purchasing on an industrial, national then global scale. All we require is technology which enables that collaboration or organisation of action and that is what we are creating.
So what is Nexves?
The future of money and the internet. We are innovating around existing products and services to provide ramp to participation in that future with as few obstacles as possible. We realise that the majority of the world is going to wake up tomorrow and begin using a cryptographically secure wallet or cryptocurrency, but that doesn’t mean we shouldn’t provide opportunities for them to be exposed to these things.
Phase 1 of that plan involves 3 parts
Part1 sees us tokenise interest on the money stored in your wallet, reinvesting that capital in asset classes reserved for the richest 1%. On your own you can’t personally invest in startup companies, commercial real estate, private equity or a number of other assets. Together we can not only invest in these things but actively influence their success while simultaneously growing our wealth. The tokens you receive will be equivalent to your proportion of funds on the platform as a whole. Have 10% of the money on it? You will receive 10% of the user distributed tokens equating to 10% of user ownership of the fund and any future returns. What this establishes is an asset-backed hard currency.
Part 2 see’s the establishment of a comparative data product. Where phase 1 enables us to create the digital currency, phase 2 lets us use it to purchase the data necessary to make it intelligent. Where you have sky TV we would pay you to reveal which packages you have. We will then benchmark your spending against every other user on the platform. Where you are paying more than someone else for the same thing we will tell you how much you could save and how to do it. This wouldn’t be true only for sky, but every recurring expense you have. Eventually this free service would give birth to a premium product which undertakes these negotiations automatically on your behalf.
Phase 3 creates an influence market place. Imagine 100,000 people sharing a similar message on their social media profile urging their follower to download an app we are invested in or 1m people embarking on their local supermarket to demand they stock a product they are invested in. By paying people to act in their own self-interest everyone else benefits and that is revolutionary.
We are currently working out the mechanics of the platform but anticipate a full launch of the service before Christmas.
One final thing, how would you like to earn free bitcoin? Use Nexves to purchase certain products and services online and we will literally give you free bitcoin as cashback. You get to begin using it without ever having to buy any.
So, what is Nexves? Everything you need from a bank, but more than you’d ever expect.