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Flexible Finance for Carers: Q&A with Tech-for-Good Startup Touco

by Hugh Williams on 30th Jun 2020 in News

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In this Q&A, FastGrowthBrands speaks to Bailey Kursar, CEO and co-founder of tech-for-good startup Touco. She outlines her company's launch of their new product (the Care Card), how this differentiates from products from other challengers such as Starling, and why the company has recently undergone a re-brand.  

Can you introduce us to Touco and the Care Card?
At Touco we're helping carers and those they care for, better manage their financial lives together. We've been doing this for over a year, with an app that helps people share financial information securely with a carer or family member. 
 
From our research we saw how much a Care Card could help carers pay for items and run errands on behalf of their loved one, without compromising the safety of the person needing care. We'd planned to build the card feature in 2021, but when COVID-19 hit, we realised how important a product it is, and we needed to build quicker. Thankfully we've been able to access Innovate UK's support to do so, and plan to launch it later this year.
How does the card differ to products already on the market, such as Starling's Connected Card?
Unlike Starling’s Connected Card, Touco’s Care Card is designed to be a more flexible and longer term solution for carers.

It will be a restricted access prepaid card, configurable when it comes to how much can be spent, and crucially the card will be issued in the name of the carer. This feature means that the card can be sent directly to the carer’s residence, the PIN can be set by them, and the carer can use the card to spend online.

What is the Innovate UK fund, and how has that helped you launch your new product?
Innovate UK launched a specific COVID-19 response fund for innovations to help the recovery efforts. We have been able to use their financial support to start work on this product much sooner than we would otherwise.
Touco has also recently undergone a re-brand. What does this entail, and why have you decided to do it?
We used to be called Toucan, which was a name we'd had since the beginning and was always meant to be a placeholder. When we looked at how we would scale, we realised we might not have the right trademarks to claim the name, so we decided to change it.
Touco takes the 'Tou' from Toucan, which we loved because it refers to the two people collaborating using the product, and 'Co', short for collaboration and cooperation.
What does the future hold for Touco?
We're focused on launching our Care Card later this year, and on building relationships with businesses who want to distribute Touco to their customers or employees. Next year we'll be adding new services onto the app too, so that carers can do more and more with Touco.