Lydia Ofori of Kreesibl tells us about empowering people to make wise data-driven decisions.
Tell us about you, your career, and how you founded Kreesibl.
Lydia Ofori: Before I founded Kreesibl, I had spent a long time of my career in the investment management industry. Back in the day, after graduation from my first degree at Robert Gordon University, I stayed on to complete a Master’s degree in Financial Management which is when I first got the practical exposure to what happens with investment and wealth management. I took a job back then with one of the large global asset managers analyzing investment products and funds for the fund managers. I didn’t stop there, though, I took another job with a hedge fund, then another, and another at senior-level positions, which helped hone my skills and understanding of the industry. I also added on professional studies and pursued two of the toughest of them all in the industry – The CFA Charter and CAIA Charter, then later, an Executive Education program at Columbia Business School. In the most recent years, I also deepened my knowledge and understanding of how responsible AI could help human beings optimize our tasks and go beyond the mundane to the superhuman.
As an analyst by profession, as you can imagine, I spend a lot of time reading through news and analyzing companies to get a view of where the world is going. I thought about the Millennials trying to invest their hard-earned money without having the necessary skills to help them make the right choices. And the individual who would like to start diversifying their income through investing but feels intimidated about the whole prospects of investing, although they know they need to do something.
So then, the burden on me was what I could do to help, and that’s how Kreesibl all started.
Do you have small habits that made a meaningful impact on your life and business?
Lydia Ofori: Yes. Persistence. If I haven’t done something before, I know that the first attempt isn’t the be-all and end-all of the journey. That means it’s not about trying and stopping, whatever the outcome of the first attempt is. It’s about doing things over and over and over and over… Meaning evolving all the time. When I hit a roadblock in life or business, it also means that it is not a signal to stop but to keep going. After all, we got the lightbulb on the 1001st time.
How does Kreesibl market its product/services online?
Lydia Ofori: Kreesibl stands for making wealth creation accessible. In line with what we stand for, we made our app available through the AppStore and Google Play store, which means it’s available to everyone who has a phone. We are also active on social media – TikTok, Instagram, Twitter, and Facebook.
How are you funding your growth?
Lydia Ofori: We bootstrapped initially until I got a very small investment from friends and family last year. We are now raising additional capital to support our growth and development.
Who are your competitors? And how do you plan to stay in the game?
Lydia Ofori: There are a whole lot of exciting functionalities that we’ll be releasing shortly, so watch the space. The announcement will come out soon. One thing is for sure – the years spent in investment management give us a very strong unfair advantage in the market. Coupled with our proprietary AI technology that transforms unstructured data into real-time insights, we’ve got a healthy competitive moat to stay ahead in the game.
Tell us a customer success story of yours.
Lydia Ofori: People reach out to let us know how the insights and the learning videos on our app that breaks down seemingly hard subjects into simple explanations are helping them make wise decisions. Some say that directing them to focus on viable industries that make sense before making any decisions on companies has helped their portfolios. The feedback that we’re getting so far is reassuring and lets us know that, indeed, we people make wise, judicious decisions than they were before.
Your final thoughts?
Lydia Ofori: Not being able to see patterns and opportunities clearly with our naked eye is a huge barrier for many people to participate in the capital markets. This means that many people, although they want to become financially free by diversifying their incomes through investing, cannot do so. That is a vicious cycle that I felt we could break through, Kreesibl.
Our AI technology enables everyone to invest with clear insights without lengthy analysis. We have developed these tools based on sound investment and financial principles to help people with their investing and financial freedom journey.
It is no surprise that Millennials are keen to invest and become better at managing their finances. With the GFC in 2008, people lost trust in capital markets; the recent systemic shock caused by the pandemic gave us all a practical and active lesson on the relevance of diversifying income streams with the capital markets being the main conduit. The problem faced by many is the lack of engaging tools that answer the key question of how to do this well, with insight and knowledge that reduces the prospects of catastrophic moments – principally losing your shirt. This is what Kreesibl is set to do for people. It mixes technology with education to enable the individual to make better decisions.
And that is a great thing. Evidence from research released by Nasdaq points to how active enablement of capital formation through the capital markets reduces poverty in our society. In that sense, Kreesibl reduces the intimidation that comes with active wealth creation and levels the playing field for all at a time when the mobile phone has become more than a communication device.
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