Topia and WealthKernel to enhance personal finance offering

Leading fintech in the FIRE movement partners with WealthKernel to help millennials retire early

WealthKernel, the wealthtech provider of digital investment services, today announces its partnership with Topia, a UK-based app empowering millennials to reach financial independence and retire early. As part of the partnership, Topia will use WealthKernel’s investing API and regulatory umbrella to bring flexible SIPP and ISA investing accounts to market to boost its personal finance offering.

Topia, one of the UK’s most innovative new personal finance apps, is founded on the belief that everyone should make the most of life, and is built around helping individuals reach financial independence. The app is based on the FIRE movement (Financial Independence Retire Early), and aims to revolutionise how millennials view the timeline of their lives by helping them achieve financial freedom early on in their lives in order to reach retirement sooner than those following a more traditional model.

The FIRE movement is a growing trend in the UK, which directly questions why we should retire at the conventional retirement age of 65. By dedicating up to 70% of their income to savings, followers of the movement hope to be able to quit their jobs and live solely on small withdrawals from their portfolios, decades before they reach 65. Topia’s announcement follows recent confirmation that the pension triple lock will be suspended from next year, making the prospect of relying on a state pension increasingly unattractive.

Topia will utilise WealthKernel’s flexible ISA and SIPP tax wrapper APIs, as well as its portfolio management and trading functionalities to power the app. As an appointed representative of WealthKernel, Topia will also utilise its regulatory umbrella to bring its new services to market at speed, avoiding in-house completion of the lengthy FCA accreditation process.

Karan Shanmugarajah, CEO of WealthKernel, says:

“It’s incredibly important to open people’s eyes to the savings vehicles that are available to them beyond traditional pensions - whether that’s SIPPs, ISAs or other investment products. Using our simple, flexible, scalable technology and regulatory integrations, WealthKernel is able to help forward-thinking companies like Topia make financial security accessible every day. We’re excited to be supporting them in empowering more consumers to reach financial security in their own time, and on their own terms.”

Logan Leckie, Founder and CEO at Topia, says:

“We are very much focused on building a fantastic product for our community and helping everyone understand and reach financial freedom. With WealthKernel’s Appointed Rep service, the opportunity to come to market much faster was fantastic. Topia will now be able to dedicate more time and resources towards enhancing our FIRE offering. We are also excited to launch the Topia FIRE fund using WealthKernel’s services and begin our journey.”