How many partners does it take to help drive a national effort to boost youth financial literacy?
According to news from Finovate Best of Show winner Zogo, eleven is a great place to start.
Zogo announced late last month that it has teamed up with 11 community banks and credit unions across 12 different states to offer its teen financial literacy app to customers and members as a branded offering. Each institution will get an access code specific to their bank or credit union that they provide to the users of the app. Once the code is entered, the Zogo app becomes branded with the institution’s logo, helping create a more unique, partner-specific experience for the customer.
“With Zogo, we wanted to create a financial education experience our peers would actually use,” Zogo co-founder and CEO Bolun Li said. “We are excited to partner with community-focused financial institutions to bring this vision to life.”
The app works by guiding users through more than 300 educational micro-modules that help them meet the national standards for financial literacy. These include topics such as using credit, saving, and financial investing. Successfully completing a module earns the user points that can be redeemed in the form of gift cards. Zogo won Best of Show honors at FinovateFall in September for its live demo of the app, which leverages behavioral economic research developed at Duke University in North Carolina to help foster literacy in younger adults.
The firms that will be using the app as early as this year are:
- CommunityWide FCU (Indiana)
- Diamond CU (Pennsylvania)
- First Bank & Trust (Louisiana)
- Magnolia FCU (Mississippi)
- MassMutual FCU (Massachusetts)
- North Star Community CU (North Dakota)
- Pen Air FCU (Florida)
- Pyramid FCU (Arizona)
- RelyOn CU (Texas)
- Southern Chautauqua FCU (New York)
- West Town Bank & Trust (Illinois, North Carolina)
Founded in 2018, Zogo has raised $295,000 in pre-seed funding, and is backed by Techstars and MetLife. In addition to its Finovate Best of Show honors, Zogo was the winner of the National Association of Credit Union Service Organizations (NACUSO) 7th Annual Next Big Idea contest earlier this year.
“Zogo is such a timely application, built to connect with young adults as they are beginning to learn the value of money,” NACUSO President and former USAA Bank CEO Jack Antonini said. “Delivered through ubiquitous mobile phone, this app can help credit unions capture new members, while teaching and reinforcing responsible financial habits.”