SA’s Fynbos Money allows investors to connect portfolios directly to AI

South African investtech startup Fynbos Money is allowing customers to connect their portfolios to ChatGPT, Claude and other AI assistants, helping them ask questions about their investments and receive detailed analysis.

Founded in 2024 by Adrian Hope-Bailie and based in Cape Town, Fynbos Money is a savings and investments platform that consolidates multiple financial products into a single interface. All deposits flow into a central cash account first and then automatically distribute according to a user’s custom rules

The new integration with AI assistants like Claude and ChatGPT allows customers to ask questions about their own investments in everyday language and receive analysis based on their actual portfolio information.

Questions such as “Has my money actually grown, or have I just deposited more?”, “What am I actually invested in?” or “What could an extra R500 a month mean over 20 years?” can now be answered using information from their own accounts, giving investors access to insights that have traditionally required specialist financial knowledge.

The launch comes as AI companies push further into financial services. Anthropic, the company behind Claude, recently introduced Claude for Financial Advisors, connecting financial professionals with data and tools used for research, preparation and documentation. Fynbos is taking this shift directly to individual investors, making AI-powered financial analysis accessible to customers using their own investment data.

“Investing has become far more accessible, but access to useful financial insight hasn’t necessarily kept pace,” Hope-Bailie said. “AI has the potential to change that. By giving people the ability to interrogate their own investment information, we can make useful financial insight much more accessible.”

It’s an approach Hope-Bailie calls ‘bring your own intelligence’. Rather than building its own AI assistant, Fynbos allows customers to connect their investments to supported AI tools such as ChatGPT and Claude, giving them the freedom to use the tools they’re already familiar with.

Customers can choose to connect their Fynbos account to a supported AI assistant, giving it access to read-only information about their accounts, balances and selected funds. The assistant can also use tools developed by Fynbos to perform calculations and projections and access fund information such as performance and fees.

The functionality has been built using Model Context Protocol (MCP), an open standard that allows AI applications to connect to external tools and data. This means Fynbos customers can use compatible AI assistants rather than being tied to a single provider.

Connecting is entirely optional, and access to the Fynbos account is read-only. AI assistants cannot use the connection to move money, buy or sell investments, switch funds or make any other changes to the account. Any information accessed through a connected AI assistant is subject to that provider’s own privacy, data processing and retention policies.

Fynbos has also launched its first mobile app, responding to one of its most requested customer features. The app introduces biometric login, faster performance and a more responsive mobile experience, while giving Fynbos access to security and usability features not available through its web platform.

“Both developments reflect the direction we want to take Fynbos Money,” said Hope-Bailie. “We want to build technology that makes investing simpler, gives customers greater control and helps them make more informed decisions about their money.”

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