In the UK, only 9% of consumers have access to real financial advice. Traditional advisors require portfolios of £100,000 or more. Robo-advisors only handle investments. Budgeting apps can't invest. The result: 41 million people navigating their finances without proper guidance, with £430 billion in savings sitting uninvested. Count fixes this. In one app, fully automated, it handles budgeting, saving, investing, and tax optimisation; for anyone, with no minimum. And unlike every other app out there, Count is FCA-authorised to give actual regulated financial advice. That's not a small detail. Getting FCA authorisation takes 12 to 18 months minimum, and Count already has it.
The company was founded by Laura Cornely, supported by a strong team including CTO Giuseppe Naccarato, who brings 25 years of fintech engineering experience, and Alexander Cornely as advisor, with a background in finance law and structured finance. Laura has 8+ years in Private Equity (PE) and VC, and went from idea to FCA-authorised app in under 18 months, on a burn of just £70k. The product is live, there's a waitlist of 300+ users, and £500k in AUM at launch.
We're especially proud to back Laura, a founder who spotted a structural injustice in the financial system and built a regulated, scalable fix for it, rather than just another budgeting tool.
We've investing £50,000 with our Package Deal, alongside lead investor 1818 VC, a focused seed-stage fintech fund. At Joanna Invests, we back women building solutions with global impact. Count is a great example of exactly that.

