Company: PaceUP Invest GmbH

Founders: Rukayyat Kolawole (CEO) / Ibraheem Kolawole (CTO)

Headquarters: Mannheim, Germany, and London, UK

Most Recent Valuation: €10million, October 2025

Employees: 6

Founded: 2020

In One Sentence: PACEUPinvest® is a B2B2C hyperpersonalised wealth technology platform combinining AI, behavioural science, inclusive cultural insights, and human expertise to empower individuals and organisations to achieve true financial well-being.

Top quote: “I started PaceUP Invest because I believed this had to exist; a platform that combines technology, behavioural science, and human insight to make wealth building accessible, fair, and personalised.”

Who are you building your product/service for, and what painful problem are you taking away from their day?

We have built PaceUP Invest for people and institutions who want to help others build financial security, but are held back by complexity, cost, and lack of trust. For individuals, especially women, young professionals, migrants, and underserved communities, the pain is confusion and anxiety around money. They don’t know where to start, feel excluded by traditional finance, and lack access to affordable, personalised guidance. PaceUP Invest removes the stress and guesswork by turning complex financial decisions into clear, personalised, and confidence-building steps.

For wealth managers, financial advisors, banks, and employers, the pain is scale and engagement. Advisors are overwhelmed and can’t serve diverse clients efficiently. Institutions struggle to engage next-generation customers and meet financial wellbeing and inclusion goals. PaceUP Invest removes this burden by automating education, planning, and investment simulations, reducing workload while improving client outcomes. In short, we take away financial confusion for individuals and operational overload for institutions, thus making wealth building clearer, calmer, and scalable.

If a top-tier VC is reading this, what would you want them to understand about your company in 30 seconds?

PaceUP Invest is building the infrastructure layer for inclusive, AI-driven wealth management. We combine proprietary AI agents, behavioural science, and culturally aware design to help financial institutions, advisors, and employers deliver personalised financial planning and investment guidance at scale, cutting advisory workload by 25% while unlocking underserved and next-gen clients.

We are B2B2C-first, integration-ready, already running POCs across Europe, the UK, and emerging markets, and targeting a €90B serviceable market created by regulation, AI adoption, and the urgent demand for financial wellbeing.

This is not another finance app. It’s a scalable system of intelligence and trust for how wealth advice will be delivered globally.

Why has nobody else done what you’re doing?

Nobody has fully done what PaceUP Invest is doing because it requires the rare combination of deep financial expertise, behavioural science, cultural insight, and responsible AI, and most players are built around only one of these strengths.

Traditional wealth managers focus on human advice but cannot scale it affordably. Robo-advisors scale well but strip out trust, education, and emotional support. EdTech platforms teach finance but stop short of enabling real financial action. Most fintechs are transactional by design and optimise for products, not long-term financial wellbeing.

What we do differently is connect all of these layers into one system. PaceUP Invest blends autonomous AI agents with human oversight to deliver personalised education, planning, and investment simulation at scale. We embed behavioural science to address fear, shame, and bias, factors most platforms ignore because they are harder to measure. We design for cultural context and inclusion from day one, rather than retrofitting it later.

We also chose a B2B2C embedded model, which many competitors avoid because it requires navigating regulation, enterprise integration, and long sales cycles. This approach, however, allows us to scale through trusted institutions while maintaining compliance and trust. In short, others optimise only for speed, cost, or performance alone. PaceUP Invest includes trust, inclusion, and impact at scale, and that combination is what makes our approach both hard to replicate and highly defensible.

What was the “this has to exist” moment that made you start the company?

The “this has to exist” moment came when I realised that even with nearly two decades in investment banking and asset management, I was still not immune to exclusion. I was denied a mortgage, not because I lacked income, assets, or financial discipline, but because of assumptions made about my gender and background. I was labelled “too risky.” I moved my money to another bank and was approved, but the experience was a wake-up call. If someone with deep financial expertise and access could be excluded so easily, what chance did everyone else have?

That moment exposed a deeper truth: the financial system is not built for most people. It assumes confidence, privilege; and conformity and ignores behaviour, culture, and lived experience. Financial literacy alone wasn’t enough; people needed guidance that met them where they are and empowered them to act. I started PaceUP Invest because I believed this had to exist; a platform that combines technology, behavioural science, and human insight to make wealth building accessible, fair, and personalised. PaceUP Invest is the product I wish had existed then: one that gives people the clarity, confidence, and tools to take control of their financial future, without bias or barriers.

How do you make money? Which part of your business model are you most excited about scaling?

PaceUP Invest makes money through a scalable B2B2C SaaS and embedded finance model. Our core revenue comes from B2B subscriptions paid by banks, wealth managers, employers, and digital platforms that license our AI-powered financial wellbeing tools. Pricing is recurring and tiered based on number of users, modules, and level of integration or white-labelling. We also earn usage-based fees as our partners offer PaceUP Invest to their customers or employees.

The part we are most excited about scaling is our embedded B2B2C model. By integrating PaceUP Invest into institutions that already serve millions of users, we can grow rapidly, efficiently, and responsibly while delivering real financial empowerment at scale.

Which proof points matter most right now?

Right now, the proof points that matter most for PaceUP Invest are B2B pilots, partnerships, and real-world usage, because they validate both demand and scalability. Our strongest signals include:

• Active pilots and proofs of concept with B2B partners across multiple markets, demonstrating that banks, wealth managers, and employers are willing to adopt and test our solution

• Clear value creation for advisors and institutions, including reduced advisory workload, higher client engagement, and positive feedback from end users.

• Growing inbound interest and strategic conversations with financial institutions, HR platforms, and fintech partners, confirming strong market pull.

While early revenue and user numbers are important, at this stage enterprise validation and repeatable use cases are the most meaningful indicators that PaceUP Invest solves a real problem and can scale through partnerships.

How does your product/service make the world a better place?

PaceUP Invest makes the world better by democratising access to financial confidence and long-term wealth, especially for people historically excluded by traditional finance. Our platform goes beyond tools and transactions. By combining AI, behavioural science, and culturally aware design, we help people understand money, make informed decisions, and build sustainable financial habits, reducing anxiety, debt cycles, and inequality.

For institutions and employers, we enable fairer, more inclusive financial services that meet people where they are, not where the system expects them to be. The result is greater financial resilience, intergenerational stability, and a shift from wealth being a privilege to becoming a right.

What’s been your biggest unexpected challenge so far, and what did it force you to learn quickly?

Our biggest, unexpected challenge wasn’t the technology; it was earning trust and driving adoption in B2B partnerships. Even with a proven AI platform, strong credentials, and clear end-user value, we quickly learned that selling into financial institutions requires far more than product excellence. It forced us to accelerate our understanding of enterprise sales cycles, regulatory nuance, multi-stakeholder decision-making, and evidence-based pilots.

We also had to mature rapidly around risk governance, explainable AI, and human-in-the-loop design to meet institutional expectations. That challenge ultimately strengthened the product, sharpened our positioning, and made PaceUP Invest significantly more enterprise-ready and defensible.

What does success look like in 12 months? What about in 5 years?

In 12 months:

Success means PaceUP Invest is a trusted B2B wealth-tech partner with multiple paid enterprise clients across Europe and at least one international market (e.g. Brazil or MENA). We have converted PoCs into long-term contracts, proven advisor workload reduction (25%), recurring revenues, and a production-ready, explainable AI platform embedded into banks, wealth managers, and employers.

In 5 years:

Success means PaceUP Invest is a category-defining global wealth-tech platform powering financial wellbeing for millions through institutions. We are the default AI + human advice layer for inclusive wealth management, with strong profitability, regulatory credibility, and measurable impact on closing wealth and advice gaps worldwide.

What type of partner or collaborator would most accelerate your journey right now? (If relevant, which roles are you hiring for?)

The partners that would most accelerate our journey right now are regulated financial institutions and distribution partners that already serve large, diverse customer bases. Specifically:

• Wealth managers, financial advisors, and private banks willing to embed PaceUP Invest to scale personalised advice and reduce advisor workload.

• Banks, neobanks, and employers seeking differentiated financial wellbeing and engagement offerings for clients or employees.

• Strategic technology and data partners (core banking, payroll, HR, or open banking platforms) to accelerate integration and reach.

• Forward-looking investors with sector expertise who can open doors to regulated markets and enterprise decision-makers. These partners shorten sales cycles, validate at scale, and allow us to grow faster through trusted distribution rather than standalone B2C acquisition.

We are hiring for sales.

Finish this sentence: “We’ll know we’ve really made it when…”

“We will know we have really made it when wealth is no longer a privilege. When advisors, banks, and employers globally rely on PaceUP Invest to deliver trusted, inclusive wealth guidance at scale, and millions of people confidently plan, invest, and build generational wealth.”

Website: https://www.paceupinvest.com/

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