Fintech Impact

In this 134th episode of Fintech Impact, Jason Pereira, award-winning financial planner, university lecturer, writer, and host, welcomes Jennifer Leger and Venky Kulkarni, co-Founders of Quber. They discuss common barriers to saving money, how Quber works to help its users overcome those barriers, and how they’re planning to grow the company. 

Episode Highlights: 

● 00:41 – Quber is a money-saving app that helps people to save for specific life events and goals. 

● 01:02 – Jennifer was inspired to create Quber out of her own personal financial frustration. 

● 01:40 – When you download the app and create an account, you’re prompted to create your first savings goal, like an emergency fund. 

● 02:06 – Quber stores the money that users are saving in a trust account so they can’t easily spend it. 

● 02:38 – This is not investing in the stock market, it is simply setting aside cash to have on hand. 

● 03:09 – Quber starts with saving rules, outlining how money will be moved from your bank account into your “savings jar” on the app. 

● 03:32 –Quber creates savings goals and challenges for people to participate in within the app. 

● 04:17 – Their target market is middle to low income people who have children. 

● 06:05 – Quber is for really foundational savings, built for people who think they can’t save their money. 

● 07:02 – For every $20 you save in the app, you get an entry into a drawing to win more money, and this attracts and retains users. 

● 07:20 – Quber also has business partnerships, which is the primary way they get new users. 

● 12:21 – Their next step is outreach to more Canadians through community savings initiatives and more traditional marketing. 

● 13:53 – Quber’s monetization is primarily through their B2B partnerships. 

● 15:02 – If Jennifer could change one thing within Quber or the industry, it would be to be able to move money faster. 

● 16:24 – If Venky could change one thing, it would be to stop fees from disproportionately hitting the financially underserved. 

● 18:26 – The biggest challenges for Venky were figuring out regulations and compliance as the company was starting, building partnerships with banks, and getting people to provide their bank account information. 

● 21:00 – The biggest challenge for Jennifer is similar, but it’s mainly that growth has been slower than they’d hoped. 

● 21:29 – What excites both Jennifer and Venky the most is hearing user testimonials. 

3 Key Points 

1. People often don’t look at their spending habits to understand where their money goes. 

2. Quber has found success by incentivizing people to save through contests and partnerships. 

3. Cultures in other parts of the world emphasize community savings and Quber hopes to bring that to North America. 

Tweetable Quotes: 

● “A lot of people have cash but they’re spending it on things that they don’t really need. So what we’re trying to do is help people to save for the things that they want by changing their spending.” –Jennifer Leger 

● “Those coffees and those foods really do add up, and people don’t realize it. When you’re spending, you’re not actually looking at it or looking at it in depth. So once they see that they can start cutting back on those things, they really see their savings grow.” –Jennifer Leger 

Resources Mentioned: 

● Website – Jason Pereira’s Website 

● Facebook – Jason Pereira’s Facebook 

● LinkedIn – Jason Pereira’s LinkedIn 

● FintechImpact.co – Website for Fintech Impact 

● Quber Website