85. Nugget Savings: helping parents-to-be plan for paid leave

Founder: Katie Guild and Harriet Morton-Liddle
Year founded: 2023
Website: nuggetsavings.com

In October, the Office for National Statistics (ONS) reported that 2023 saw the fewest number of babies born in England and Wales since 1977. Given the lack of clarity and transparency around maternity pay and shared parental leave finances, this figure is no surprise.

To cut a path through the confusion, Katie Guild and Harriet Morton-Liddle cofounded Nugget Savings. Its a new financial app that aims to demystify parental leave pay in the UK, and nurture parents-to-be through one of the most nerve-wracking, albeit exciting, periods of their lives.

“We’ve identified three areas that harm the financial health of parents-to-be,” says Guild. “There’s a lack of transparency from employers over parental leave, there’s a lack of understanding maternity pay policy and its confusing language, and there’s a lack of accurate financial planning”.

We’ve identified three areas that harm the financial health of parents-to-be – there's a lack of transparency from employers over parental leave, there's a lack of understanding maternity pay policy and its confusing language, and there's a lack of accurate financial planning,

To tackle transparency, the first product built was the ‘nuggbase’, the UK’s largest database of parental leave policies. The community has uploaded over 800 policies, meaning people no longer have to ask what a company’s parental leave policy is during a job interview and risk discrimination.

For financial planning, there are in-depth planners and spreadsheets for users to accurately plan their finances and savings for a baby. There are also short videos on its social media platforms explaining the financial reality of parental leave, and what happens to things like your pension and student loan when you are looking after your baby.

The cofounders flag working with The Times as a huge moment in the past year, creating a month-long campaign about the importance of getting to grips with your pension.

The goal is to be the number one finance app for new parents, building a more sophisticated tech product that allows parents to accurately budget for their time away from work. Nugget has already built up a social following of over 100,000 wannabe parents who are eager for that support.

Parental leave is becoming one of the most confusing areas of employment law. As the laws continue to evolve, Nugget is poised to become the go-to financial app for the next generation of families – which is why we’re christening it a Startups 100 business for 2025.