About EKKO

The start of a Māori financial system.

Our people pay more to borrow money. Not because we're bad with it, but because the system was never built to see how good we are. I'm building one that can.

— Tyson Harding, founder

Why

A system that was never built to see us.

  1. We started behind.Land was how families built wealth and borrowed against it. When ours was taken, that went too.
  2. The system sees people alone.A credit score is one person and their debts. Our way has always been whānau, together.
  3. It sees what you owe, not what you save.Save every week for a year and your credit score barely notices.
The game

Banks, gyms and subscriptions use how we behave to keep us paying. EKKO uses it to help you save.

A bill has a due date, so it gets paid. Saving never did. So EKKO gives saving the same things that work on us everywhere else, pointed the other way:

  • A weekly checkEvery week, so there's always a reason to save this week, not someday.
  • A streakWatching your weeks line up makes you want to keep going.
  • FriendsSaving with whānau and friends, because we've always done better together.
  • No guiltMiss a week and a lifeline can cover it. Whatever happens, what you saved is still yours.

It's meant to be fun. That's the point: when saving is something you want to do, you keep doing it.

The plan

Step by step.

  1. TodayLive now

    The savings game

    Pick an amount to save each week, on your own or with friends and whānau. Every week, EKKO checks your own bank. Your money never leaves your bank.

  2. NextNot here yet

    Your discipline, shown as a meter

    Every week you save counts towards your discipline. It shows that you save, week after week, when nobody is making you.

    Your discipline fills a meter on your account. The more weeks you save, the further it fills.

  3. LaterNot here yet

    Our own lending

    Lending isn't open yet, and I can't give you a date.

  4. After thatNot here yet

    What our people pay too much for

    I'll put the profit into the things that cost our people the most. Fuel first: owning petrol stations and bringing the price down. Then supermarkets, to bring down the cost of food. After that, whatever our people need built.

Every step pays for the next one. That's how it becomes a system that keeps itself going, and our money stays here in Aotearoa, working for us.

Four promises

What won't change.

  • Your money stays yours.EKKO reads your bank. It can never move a cent.
  • Your information stays yours.EKKO never sells it, and never shares it for advertising.
  • EKKO does well when you do.Never when you miss.
  • The game works for you.No tricks to keep you hooked, no fake deadlines, no guilt.
What this builds

The current system profits when you fall behind. It was built that way on purpose, and you've felt it every week whether you could name it or not.

EKKO is the inversion. When you win, I win. Your discipline is the engine. Your sovereignty is the outcome.

Here in Aotearoa, we've always done this together — we pool, we look after each other, we rise together. That's not a weakness. That's the whole point. EKKO is built on that truth, not against it.

He tangata. He tangata. He tangata.
It is the people. It has always been the people.

I built this for my daughter. I built this for yours too. Every child starts out believing they can build anything — somewhere along the way, the system convinces them they can't.

EKKO exists to prove that wrong.

Start free

No card to start.

About - The start of a Māori financial system | EKKO