Squirrel Away

For many families, a birthday or graduation is an opportunity to give a child something meaningful. Squirrel Away (opens in a new tab) is building on that tradition to make long-term investing part of how families celebrate and support the next generation.

The South African investment platform allows parents and guardians to invest on behalf of children, while family members and friends can contribute directly through a gifting link. With contributions starting from as little as R10, Squirrel Away aims to make investing more accessible to people who may have limited financial knowledge or experience.

Its mission is to make the collective support of a child's community a starting point for generational wealth.

Octoco became Squirrel Away’s technology partner through Yenza Venture Studio, Octoco Group’s venture programme for early-stage, technology-enabled businesses.

Squirrel Away needed one platform to serve people with very different levels of financial knowledge, while meeting the requirements of a financial services provider.

It had to support:

• Investment management: Enabling users to establish investments, complete risk profiling, and select suitable portfolios.
• Dependent investing: Allowing parents and guardians to invest on behalf of children.
• Collaborative gifting: Letting family and friends contribute, including those who may not use the app themselves.
• Financial services requirements: Identity verification and the financial information an investment platform must collect.
• Understanding growth: Showing how contributions could grow over time, without assuming a background in finance.

The team needed to consider how Squirrel Away could make investing accessible while accommodating the requirements of a financial services platform.

Each type of user raised a different question about how the platform should work:

• First-time investors: Risk profiling and portfolio selection had to make sense to someone making their first investment decision.
• Gift-givers without accounts: Family and friends needed to contribute to a child's investment without each person creating an account or navigating an investment platform.
• The long view: A gift is most meaningful when people can see what it could become, so users needed a way to see potential growth and the value of regular contributions.
• Compliance within a short journey: Verification, financial information, investment management and payments had to fit into a journey that stays simple to follow.

Octoco's Fractional CTO service was an important part of this process. The team provided technical guidance on architecture, security and decision-making, helping Squirrel Away consider the technical implications of its product direction alongside its broader objectives.

The platform brings three core elements together:

• Investment portfolios: Users complete the required verification and financial information processes, establish a risk profile and choose an investment option suited to their needs. They can invest for themselves or on behalf of dependants.
• The Village: Parents and guardians share unique gifting links so family and friends can contribute directly towards a child’s investment, with the option to include personal messages and celebrate milestones.
• Investment growth calculator: Users can explore how their contributions and potential investment growth could accumulate over time, helping make the effects of long-term investing easier to understand.

These run alongside payment integration and investment account management. Its design connects individual investing with the collective role that families and communities can play in supporting a child's financial future.

The Squirrel Away EasyETFs Balanced Actively Managed ETF is now listed on the Johannesburg Stock Exchange (opens in a new tab), a significant milestone for the business.

The listing gives the fund an independent presence as a JSE-listed security, making it available through stockbroking platforms that offer it.

The platform is live, and users can complete verification, invest for themselves or their dependents, and contribute to a child’s investment through a gifting link.