Standard Life announce winners of second Innovation Forum contest

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• InvestSuite and The Joy Club emerge as winners of a contest designed to unearth the best ideas from within the fintech sector
• Winners selected for their innovative approach to engaging people with their pensions
• Standard Life plans to extend the reach of the winners’ services by incorporating them into its offer to customers

Standard Life, part of Phoenix Group, has announced InvestSuite and The Joy Club as the winners of its second Innovation Forum. The winners emerged from a contest that began in March where the brief was focused on uncovering new ideas to engage people with their pensions and in particular the ways in which they are invested.

More than a dozen applicants were whittled down over a series of pitches and presentations held in Standard Life’s Edinburgh office, aimed at finding excellence in innovation and creativity within the fintech community. Standard Life was particularly keen to identify and develop solutions to help customers engage more fully with their investments, and the Environmental, Social and Governance (ESG) factors which are at the heart of responsible investing.

About InvestSuite

One of the winners, InvestSuite, provides insights into people’s investments with a strong focus on sustainability alongside performance. InvestSuite’s ‘StoryTeller’ reporting tool clearly displays the environmental impact of investments, including measuring the carbon dioxide intensity of a portfolio against a benchmark and analysing the sustainability history of the companies people hold their investments in. Standard Life were impressed by the targeted, accessible and relevant nature of the communications InvestSuite were able to offer.

About The Joy Club

The Joy Club is an online community for retirees to connect, learn new skills and develop their existing talents. Members can participate in a wide range of activities including Yoga, creative writing, painting and Pilates, while meeting like-minded people and building relationships. While not focused on investments specifically, The Joy Club’s unique approach to the ‘Social’ aspect of ESG through their innovation around later-life wellbeing impressed Standard Life’s executive judging panel, particularly in the context of its owner, Phoenix Group’s, focus on how we can live longer, better lives.

The winners will now follow 2022 winners Behavioural Finance in partnering with Standard Life to roll out their concept to a pool of more than three million Standard Life customers.

The Forum involved a five-way collaboration with TCS’s Co-Innovation Network (TCS COINTM) innovation ecosystem, Fintech Scotland, Women In Banking & Finance (WIBF) and Scottish Financial Enterprise (SFE).

Highly commended by the Standard Life judging panel were sustainable investment tech firm Etcho, who help people find suitable investment products, including pensions, based on their unique sustainability values.

Colin Williams, Managing Director for Pensions and Savings at Standard Life, said: “We’re committed to continually innovating for our customers, and creating new experiences to improve engagement and decision making. Our Innovation Forum forms a large part of this. This year we set the fintech community the challenge to show the positive impact of sustainability on pension savings and retirement outcomes, through technology and creativity.

“InvestSuite and The Joy Club are this year’s worthy winners and we’re looking forward to working with them to develop new products and services. The Innovation Forum had extremely strong applicants and finalists throughout the process, all merit a huge thank you for their fantastic contributions and effort.”

Hannah Thomson, Founder and CEO of The Joy Club, said: “The ‘social’ aspect of ESG is often overlooked but it’s critically important. Our social lives are deeply connected to our sense of wellbeing, which takes on a particular significance on the approach to and during retirement. It’s brilliant to see Standard Life recognise this and commit to supporting the social dimension of retirement. We’re proud to be a winner of the Standard Life Innovation Forum and are looking forward to bringing this innovative and pioneering partnership to life.”

Bart Vanhaeren, Chief Executive Officer and co-founder at InvestSuite said: “We’ve been involved in a number of corporate innovation programs at InvestSuite, and Standard Life’s approach towards innovation and working with tech start-ups is unparalleled. This is not only because of the top-notch Innovation space in Edinburgh, but also because of the commitment of its senior team, the process, and the quality of the organisers and our dedicated mentors.

“We’re very proud to have been selected as winners of the Innovation Forum. Standard Life’s dedication to real engagement with its customers as well as its focus on performance, sustainability, impact and innovation is inspiring and fits very well with our own commitment to ‘imagineering’ and embedding ESG in all our ’suite’ solutions."

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About Standard Life

• Standard Life is a brand that has been trusted to look after peoples' life savings for nearly 200 years
• Today it proudly serves millions of customers who come to Standard Life directly, through advisers and through their employer' pension scheme.
• Standard Life is part of the Phoenix Group, the largest long-term savings and retirement business in the UK. We're proud to be building on nearly 200 years of Standard Life heritage together
• Our products include a variety of Pensions, Bonds and Retirement options to suit people’s needs, helping our customers to invest and save for their future. We’re proud to offer a leading range of sustainable and responsible investment options.
• We support our customers on their journey to and through retirement with comprehensive, easy-to-understand guidance so they can invest in the right way for their needs, and plan a future they feel confident about.
• The value of investments can go down as well as up, and may be worth less than originally invested.