Scottish end-of-life 'digital vault' venture that pitched on Dragons' Den seals key partnership

A Scottish online “death tech” venture that has featured on the BBC Dragons’ Den programme has agreed a new partnership with equity release advisory firm Age Partnership.

Launched by serial entrepreneur Sheila Hogan in 2020, Biscuit Tin aims to help individuals get organised at all stages of life and feel more in control of their affairs and life administration, including planning for end of life. The latest partnership will enable Age Partnership to provide their customers with preferential access to the personalised secure digital vault. It follows hot on the heels of a string of other partnerships and collaborations secured over the last year, including with the Scottish Building Society.

In February 2022, Hogan made her TV debut on Dragons’ Den, pitching to the team to secure early investment. The appearance was instrumental in significantly raising the profile of the business. Biscuit Tin has been recognised as one of the top 20 Scottish Tech Ecosystem potential growth businesses. Earlier in the year, Hogan travelled to Silicon Valley with StartUp Grind, a trip that brought together Scotland’s top start-ups and scale ups with more than 3,000 of the world’s best.

Hogan said: “Creating a structured digital legacy of our lives means we can feel safe in the knowledge that we are making a difference by taking much of the administrative stress and stain away from our loved ones in the future. Biscuit Tin enables everyone to securely organise all of their life information and create a digital biography of their life to leave as a legacy to hand down the generations. I’m delighted with the progress we’re making as a business to achieve our vision of making Biscuit Tin a global household brand in digital legacy within the next five years, in a world where planning for end of life is the norm, and where we all have virtual biscuit tins containing our digital legacies to hand down the generations and we make a difference by making life easier at every stage.”

Steve Auckland, chief executive of Age Partnership, said: “From this month we are providing all our completed equity release customers with access to their own digital secure vault, where they can take control of the documents, memories and personal information that are shared with their loved ones after they pass away. Equity release as a product allows people to take control of their later life finances, it is about enriching people’s lives when they need it most; so, this partnership with Biscuit Tin has perfect synergy.”

East Lothian-based Hogan launched Biscuit Tin following a successful 40-year career in digital transformation. The venture was born out of her own traumatic personal experience of closing down the lives of her parents, which was a long and difficult task. Since launch, Biscuit Tin has won several awards and this year the business has been shortlisted for a number of accolades. Hogan previously ran an award-winning maintenance business for ten years. She has also run a successful business architecture consultancy for more than 20 years.