Amico: Central Hawke’s Bay farmer creates money lending and borrowing app

Tom Aitken has created a money-lending app for friends and family called Amico.

When Central Hawke’s Bay sheep and beef farmer Tom Aitken was 21 he borrowed $10,000 from his parents to buy a new car.

“I drafted up a basic loan agreement myself and had to work out a repayment term and it was a lot harder than you think.”

Now the 29-year-old has officially launched Amico, an app he has designed to end awkward money conversations with friends and family and formalise the money lending and borrowing process.

“There should be nothing to argue about ... it reduces any potential friction or misunderstandings.”

He said he has found parallels between creating the app and working on the farm, but said time management was the key to running both successfully.

“There are quite a lot of similarities between farming and doing a start-up, you can do everything right and there are so many things out of your control.”

Tom Aitken has created a money-lending app for friends and family called Amico.

He said Amico gave users the ability to work out repayments, interest rates, and timeframes that work for them, to create a signed loan document with the click of a button.

“Money discussions can be awkward, Amico turns good intentions into good agreements.”

He said the app was about empowering people to have confidence in lending or borrowing between family and friends.

“I’m absolutely loving it and just going the whole hog.”

Amico can be used to support people for a range of reasons, with interest rates set as low as 0% and as high as 15%.

“Last year when interest rates were going so high and there was so much pain out there, I was like there has got to be a better way.”

He said the app capped the interest rate at 15% due to the moral obligation to users.

“You are lending between family and friends and you don’t want to be taking advantage of them.”

Amico simplifies lending and borrowing money between friends and family.

Aitken said Amico could be used to help with big loans from home deposits, or support for a new business venture to more everyday short-term loans such as unexpected car costs or dental bills.

He said the app made sure that the loan was documented regardless of the size or terms, to protect both the borrower and lender, and more than one loan could be made and agreed to at the same time.

“When it comes to lending between family and friends, being on the same page about timeframes and repayments is crucial, having clear terms and the protection of a legal agreement means that what could become really complicated and emotional becomes very simple.”

Aitken said he came up with the idea while working in banking, sketched the first prototype a few years later and worked with an Auckland-based software developer to bring it to life.

“About 14 months ago I thought why not, I’ll give it a crack.”

The only cost with the app was a $15 fee to draft the document, and the only catch was that it must be used with friends and family.

The app officially launched in New Zealand and Australia six weeks ago and Aitken hoped to expand to the Northern Hemisphere later in the year.

“The uptake has blown me away, I think we are into multimillions of dollars now that have already been transacted through Amico for a wide range of cases.”

Michaela Gower joined Hawke’s Bay Today in 2023 and is based out of the Hastings newsroom. She covers Dannevirke and Hawke’s Bay news and loves sharing stories about farming and rural communities.