FINTECH WATCH
Hugo: The yellow brick road and why the path is paved with gold
How Hugo’s holistic approach to Wealthcare leads to financial freedom.
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inancial freedom may not only mean having healthy financial habits but having the will to go for the gold and in this case, quite literally. In an exclusive interview, Singapore fintech startup Hugo’s co-founders David Fergusson, Ben Davies and Braham Djidjelli explained why a holistic approach in Wealthcare and investments in gold is the right path to financial freedom. Hugo is a digital wealth and savings app that helps users track their spending, save and invest, starting with gold. Its unique features includes the Roundups, where customers can automatically turn their loose change into long-term savings, whenever they use their Hugo Platinum Visa Debit card and Money Pots that helps users track and save money to achieve goals such as going on a cruise or purchasing a new car or phone. “We realised that we had a similar passion point that is to help everyone alleviate their money fears and build healthy spending and saving habits. That’s when we decided to combine our collective experience and our strong belief that financial security is the key to happy, thriving communities to start working on Hugo,” Fergusson said, its CEO and co-founder. Hugo highlights a holistic approach in what they coined as Wealthcare. Braham added that as “open banking” becomes available in Singapore Hugo can go a step further and encapsulate its customer’s entire financial universe. He believes that if consumers understand their financial behavior, it will lead to financial habits that are both healthy and well aligned across spending, saving and investing. Just one cent A standout feature that Hugo has is the app lets users invest in gold.
Unlike diamonds, which Ben called ‘the best marketing con ever manufactured’, gold’s [is] invaluable as a store of value since time immemorial
Hugo’s Gold Vault allows everyone to include gold in their investment plans starting at just S$0.01. “There are three good reasons to own gold: It’s insurance, it’s undervalued and under-owned, and it’s in demand from strong hands,” Hugo’s chief operating officer Davies said. Unlike diamonds, which Davies called ‘the best marketing con ever manufactured’, gold’s innate and inert properties have made it invaluable as a store of value since time immemorial whilst having a deep liquid trading market. It is a proven portfolio diversifier for risk assets like bonds and stocks that underperform in highly deflationary and inflationary environments. Davies said the new generation is losing the last generation’s understanding of why they should own gold. Davies said that many Singaporeans are unsure of the safest
and best ways to invest in gold. That’s where they come in. “We want to bring gold back to the future. Our technology combines with the age-old wisdom of gold as a stable asset to make actual physical gold digitally available to everyone. We dispel the myths around gold, like, ‘I need to be rich to invest in gold, it’s illiquid and not easy to sell, and it’s hard to store’,” Davies said. Hugo Gold Vault promises to automatically hold it in highly-secure LBMA (London Bullion Market Association) accredited vaults for users. The gold bought is legally owned by the buyer and guaranteed against loss by Lloyds of London. Currently Hugo is available for Singaporeans but Braham said that they are now working on expanding to other regions and enhancing their product offerings. This includes expanding investment options beyond gold, and improving their Spend, Save, Invest products.
David Fergusson, Ben Davies and Braham Djidjelli, co-founders of Hugo
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