Hugo: The yellow brick road and why the path is paved with gold

How Hugo’s holistic approach to Wealthcare leads to financial freedom.

Financial freedom may not only mean having healthy financial habits but having the will to go for the gold and, in this case, quite literally.

In an exclusive interview with Singapore Business Review, the Singapore fintech startup, Hugo’s co-founders, David Fergusson, Ben Davies, and Braham Djidjelli explained why a holistic approach in Wealthcare and investments in gold is the right path to financial freedom.

Hugo is a digital wealth and savings app that helps users track their spending, savings, and investment, starting with gold. Its unique features include the Roundups, where customers can automatically turn their loose change into long-term savings, whenever they use their Hugo Platinum Visa debit card and Money Pots that helps users track and save money to achieve goals, such as going on a cruise or purchasing a new car or phone.

Hugo was started by Fergusson, Davies, and Djidjelli who worked together in a gold-based fintech firm in the UK. "Hu" stands for the Mandarin word "mutual" combined with the English word "Go," which signifies progress.

“We realised that we had a similar passion point that is to help everyone alleviate their money fears and build healthy spending and saving habits. That’s when we decided to combine our collective experience and our strong belief that financial security is the key to happy, thriving communities to start working on Hugo,” Fergusson said, who aside from being its co-founder, is the CEO.

Hugo highlights a holistic approach in what they coined as Wealthcare®.

“Money is the biggest cause of stress the world over and the COVID -19 pandemic has only reaffirmed how financially unprepared many of us are. Achieving financial well-being will help reduce that stress and prepare us all for a more stable and happier future,” Hugo’s Chief Product Officer Djidjelli said.

Braham added that as “open banking” becomes available in Singapore, Hugo can go a step further and encapsulate its customer’s entire financial universe. He believes that if consumers understand their financial behaviour, it will lead to financial habits that are both healthy and well-aligned across spending, saving, and investing.

A gold investment

A standout feature that Hugo has is that the app lets users invest in gold. Hugo’s Gold Vault allows everyone to include gold in their investment plans starting at $0.01.

“There are three good reasons to own gold: One, it’s insurance; two, it’s undervalued and under-owned, and three, it’s in demand from strong hands,” Hugo’s Chief Operating Officer Davies said.

Unlike diamonds, which Davies called "the best marketing con ever manufactured," gold’s innate and inert properties have made it invaluable as a store of value since time immemorial whilst having a deep liquid trading market. It is a proven portfolio diversifier for risk assets like bonds and stocks that underperform in highly deflationary and inflationary environments.

Hugo’s research revealed that in Southeast Asia there is a cultural affinity for gold. Davies said the new generation is losing the last generation’s understanding of why they should own gold. 

Davies said that many Singaporeans are unsure of the safest and best ways to invest in gold. That’s where they come in.

“We want to bring gold back to the future. Our technology combines with the age-old wisdom of gold as a stable asset to make actual physical gold digitally available to everyone. We dispel the myths around gold, like, ‘I need to be rich to invest in gold, it’s illiquid and not easy to sell, and it’s hard to store’. With Hugo Gold Vault, users can buy or sell gold for as low as $0.01 anytime at the best market prices and the mere touch of a button. We then automatically hold it in highly secure LBMA (London Bullion Market Association) accredited vaults for users. The gold bought is legally owned by the buyer and guaranteed against loss by Lloyds of London,” Davies explained.

Hugo's future

Currently, Hugo is available for Singaporeans but according to Djidjelli, they are now working on expanding to other regions as well as enhancing the product offering to improve the outcome and optimise the experience.

“A big development area of note is that we will be expanding our available investment options beyond gold as a logical next step. Other features and improvements to the Spend, Save, Invest product pillars are also in the wings,” Djidjelli said.

Hugo’s ambition is to provide a seamless financial journey to help its consumers understand and visualise their entire financial universe in one application through smarter spending without noticeable financial sacrifice so they can invest in a growing list of Hugo’s innovative wealth products ensuring their financial well-being and independence.