Why ZivaFinance exists, and who should build the next part with me
By Tore Hetland, founder of ZivaFinance. October 2026.
One question my bank couldn't answer
I started building ZivaFinance because I couldn't answer one very simple question:
Can I actually afford this?
My bank could tell me how much money I had. It could show me what I spent last month. But it couldn't tell me what would happen if I bought a computer today, the credit-card bill arrived next month, the mortgage went out on the 20th and the flight tickets I had already booked had to be paid.
I use credit cards much like debit cards and always pay the full balance. The problem isn't the interest. The problem is timing. The purchase happens today, the money leaves my account in a month. With several cards I have to watch each one and remember myself what falls due soon. The balance can look excellent while a large part of the money is, in practice, already spent.
On top of that come the mortgage, electricity, insurance, subscriptions and everything else I know is coming.
I didn't just want to know how much I had. I wanted to know how much I would have once everything I already knew about was taken into account. And if the answer was "not enough": what did I have to do, and how much time did I have?
I found no bank and no app that answered that. So in October 2025 I started building it myself.
Why I saw it this way
I didn't set out to become a fintech founder. I was trying to solve a problem in my own household.
But I spent 35 years in logistics, and logistics is really just this: what is there, what is on its way, when does it arrive, where does the bottleneck appear, and what has to be adjusted before the problem is a fact. Flows, forecasts and bottlenecks.
Money has flows, forecasts and bottlenecks too. When I realised my own bank couldn't tell me when my money would hit a bottleneck, I saw the problem the way I had seen it for 35 years: not as a question of what happened, but of what is coming, and whether there is still time to do something about it.
That is the only reason ZivaFinance looks the way it does. The value is not the forecast. The value is the time between the warning and the event.
Why now
Three things have happened at roughly the same time.
Open Banking means financial data is no longer locked inside the bank. Accounts and cards can be connected to a service you choose yourself. AI means personal finance can become a conversation instead of a spreadsheet. And the cost of living has made questions about liquidity, contracts and grocery prices more relevant to ordinary families than they have been for a long time.
Meanwhile, banks themselves are still built around transactions and history. They are very good at yesterday.
A product used to have one or two of three things: bank data, a good calculation engine, or natural language. Now all three can be combined. For the first time, a consumer-finance product can see the accounts, understand the context and talk to the user about what happens next.
One principle I hold on to: the calculation engine stays deterministic. AI explains the numbers. It doesn't invent them.
What exists today
The first version was manual. I entered transactions and future payments myself. It worked, but it demanded discipline, and a finance system that only works when the user remembers to maintain it doesn't survive.
Then I got access to Open Banking, and it changed the whole product. Bank accounts and credit cards connect directly, transactions arrive on their own, and Ziva combines what has happened with what I know is coming.
Today ZivaFinance does this:
- Sees ahead. Accounts and cards via Open Banking, a liquidity forecast month by month, the low point marked, upcoming card bills, fixed bills, loans and salary included. You see when money gets tight, before it does.
- Answers "can I afford it?" For a purchase and for a loan. The answer says what it rests on and when it should be taken with caution.
- Understands loans. Rate, term, extra payments, refinancing, and what one percentage point actually costs you.
- Reads receipts. Item, store, quantity, price per kilo and litre, and whether the pack got smaller without the price going down. Users can choose to share anonymised prices, and everyone then sees the averages.
- Keeps the household together. Several users, own accounts, one combined picture without everyone having to share everything.
- Splits bills. Holidays, dinners, activities. Who has paid, who owes, when it is settled.
- Knows the money you are waiting for. Refunds, outlays, sales. They are in the forecast, and Ziva chases them when they don't arrive.
- Tracks fixed costs against inflation. When electricity, insurance or a subscription rises faster than prices in general, Ziva says so.
- Includes pension and investments. Pension models for 13 European countries, account types per country, the portfolio as part of net worth.
- Connects energy to money. EV chargers and solar inverters, so charging and production are seen next to the electricity bill.
- Explains. ZIVA AI answers "where can I cut 200 euros a month?" or "what happens if my mortgage rate rises one point?" using your own numbers. The engine calculates. The AI explains.
All of it in 14 languages, built for Europe from day one.
What comes next
Once bank data, future payments and the household are in one place, the same information can be used for far more than a forecast. That is where we are heading now.
Agreements. Insurance, electricity, mobile, internet, loans. The supplier knows everything about you as a customer. You usually know very little about how good the deal really is. Ziva turns that around. It knows what you actually pay, how the price has moved, when the contract renews, what the documents say, whether the invoice matches the agreement, and in time how comparable households are doing. Ziva then moves from "here is your insurance" to "this is a good deal" or "renegotiate this before 1 January". What if the customer knew as much about the deal as the supplier?
Basket intelligence. A bank transaction says "REMA 1000, 847 kr". A receipt says milk, coffee, detergent, meat, bread, volume, unit price, price change, store and time. Bank data tells you what the money went to. Receipt data tells you what the money actually bought. The next step is to use it: where is your actual basket cheapest this week, and what should you buy where, when the saving is worth a second store.
Deeper household intelligence. The forecast, the contracts, the loans and the basket in one conversation: "These are the three things you should do this month."
What Ziva can become
Every receipt is a price observation. One user gets their own price history. A hundred users produce local price information. Ten thousand users produce a running database of actual prices, pack sizes, stores and regional differences, built by consumers themselves. The same goes for contracts: enough households sharing anonymously, and everyone can see whether they pay more than most.
That is the network effect in the product. The more people use Ziva, the more it is worth to each of them.
And it doesn't stop at a border. "Can I afford this?" is just as relevant in Norway, Denmark, the Netherlands, Spain and Germany. ZivaFinance is built so that the interface and the core are shared, while language, financial content, pension, tax, regulation and parts of the banking logic are localised. That is a different economics from building a new financial product per country. The question I want answered is whether this can be distributed across Europe without building Ziva fourteen times over.
Three layers, and everything else belongs under one of them:
- See tomorrow. Forecast, liquidity, bills, cards.
- Make better decisions. Can I afford it? Should I refinance? Should I renegotiate? Where can I save?
- Build consumer intelligence. Contracts, grocery prices, household data, energy, investments, pensions.
What we know so far
Ziva is early. The user base is still small. The first thing I wanted to know was whether people who connected their finances would actually use the forecast.
So far, every user who has connected a bank has opened it.
What we know: people who connect their bank use the forecast. What we don't know yet: whether they keep using it over time, and whether this scales. What we need to prove next: retention, willingness to pay, and distribution that can be repeated country by country.
That is not traction in the sense an investor usually means. It is the first piece of evidence, and the right question to move on from.
Who should build the next part with me?
I've spent a year finding out whether this idea can become a product. It can. The question I'm asking now is how big it could become, and who I should build the next part with.
I have built this largely on my own. I don't intend to continue that way.
I'm looking for the right combination of capital and people to prove the next stage: distribution, European user growth, and whether Ziva can become a scalable household-finance platform. I'm open to different structures if the people are right. That could be an investor, a co-founder, a bank or fintech that sees the same opportunity, a distribution partner, or someone who simply sees the same problem I do.
I'm not pretending everything is finished. There is a lot left to build, test and prove. But the product exists. Open Banking works. The core is built and works in 14 languages.
One founder in Norway has built the core product, connected Open Banking and made it work in 14 languages. What happens when the right people and the right capital are put behind it?
If something in this makes you think "I should talk to this guy", please do.
Talk to the founder
People don't just need to know where the money went. They need to know what is coming, while there is still time to do something about it.
Never wonder if you can afford it again.
Frequently asked questions
Can I use ZivaFinance in my country?
ZivaFinance is built for Europe: 14 languages, country-specific pension, tax and guide content, and bank connections through Open Banking in supported European markets. Ask for access from the homepage and you get a key by e-mail.
What does it cost?
The first 30 days are free, with no card. After that there is one plan, Premium. See the pricing page for your country.
What exactly is the founder looking for?
The right combination of capital and people to prove the next stage: distribution, European user growth and whether Ziva can become a scalable household-finance platform. Different structures are possible if the people are right.
How do I get in touch?
Write to tore@zivafinance.app, or send a message on LinkedIn. A short note is enough; every message gets a personal reply.