Thursday 27 October: Banking and tech industry veteran Rob Rooney has joined the board of UK tech firm HyperJar, his first corporate role since stepping down from Morgan Stanley senior management earlier this year.
Rooney was at Morgan Stanley for 32 years, where he served as a member of the firm-wide operating committee; CEO of Morgan Stanley International, Co-Global Head of Fixed Income and most recently Global Head of Technology, Operations and Firm Resilience.
Commenting on his appointment, Rob Rooney said: “I am excited to join the board of HyperJar. The platform is unique, helping real people and real families to save, budget, and spend their money the way they actually live, and inventing a whole new way for merchants to meet consumers at the ‘Point of Intent’.
“The HyperJar team and the tech they’ve developed is world class, and their mission to help people in a cost-of-living crisis is something I believe in.”
HyperJar founder and CEO, Mat Megens, said: “We are delighted Rob has agreed to join our board. He brings huge general corporate experience from his career at Morgan Stanley as well as highly specific expertise in financial services, technology, and how they interact.
“Rob’s appointment forms an important part of our push to strengthen the senior team. He joins Nicola Longfield, our new Chief Commercial Officer, previously from Deliveroo, PayPal, Nectar and Goldman Sachs, and Amabel Polglase, our new Chief Marketing Officer, previously from Zilch, Curve, Facebook and McCann Erickson in helping us take the business forward in 2023.”
About HyperJar
UK-based tech business HyperJar Limited is the intent company. Its digital wallet helps people plan and navigate their journey from depositing money to spending it, digitising, capturing, and rewarding their intent. In 2022 it won Personal Finance Tech of the Year and Startup of the Year (UK Fintech Awards); Best Payments Industry Newcomer (The Card & Payments Awards); Innovation of the Year (British Bank Awards). It currently holds Money Management App of the Year and Most Disruptive Payments Technology awards (Payments Awards 2021).
HyperJar customers organise their money in digital jam jars, share them with their friends and children, link them to their favourite brands, and spend directly from them with a debit card or their phone. These world-first features help people budget and plan better, but also let them invite brands they love to engage with them in completely new and transparent ways. This helps businesses understand new and existing customers better and make them exciting offers they’ll truly value. Far earlier in the marketing cycle than they’ve been able to before.
A positive alternative to credit, HyperJar rewards people for planning ahead. It organises their entire spending journey and leaves them with more money in their pockets. After a successful pilot and beta, the app launched to the public in October 2020. Its technical innovations currently include:
- Direct card payments from unlimited multiple individual Jars (sub-accounts)
- Shared Jars that function as instant digital kitties for unlimited sharers
- Auto-linking spend with any UK retailer to specific Jars within the app
- Blocking, Only and Never spending control options
- Dynamic Annual Growth Rate on ‘save now, pay later’ money prepaid to partners featured on the app
Money paid into HyperJar accounts is kept in the Bank of England, managed by Modulr FS Limited, an authorised Electronic Money Institution regulated by the Financial Conduct Authority. Modulr is a directly connected participant to the Faster Payments and Bacs schemes.
Mastercard, the world’s fastest payment processing network, provides the payment rails for the HyperJar prepaid card. Carta Worldwide receives and processes all the Mastercard transactions. Monavate Ltd, authorised by the Financial Conduct Authority, issues the HyperJar card. TagNitecrest produces the HyperJar Mastercard.