13 Fintechs Fighting for Financial Literacy

13 Fintechs Fighting for Financial Literacy

April is financial literacy month. To commemorate the occasion, we’re showcasing a handful (or two!) of Finovate alums that are leveraging technology to lead the fight for financial literacy.

Many of these companies specialize in helping kids and youth learn about savings, investment, credit, and other aspects of personal finance and money management. Others respond to the needs of financial services professionals, ensuring that they are informed and up-to-date on many of the resources and tools available to them to help serve the public. Together, they are a reminder that financial education is in many ways a lifelong pursuit, one that is both necessary and rewarding for younger and older financial services consumers alike.

Fun fact: Companies involved in financial literacy tend to be Finovate fan favorites. Of the 13 alums listed below, more than half won Best of Show awards for their Finovate demos!


Applause Learning

Banzai

EVERFI

FamDoo

FamZoo

Horizn

Kasasa

Launchfire

Long Game

  • FinovateFall 2021 – demo – Best of Show winner
  • Founded in 2015 and headquartered in San Francisco, California
  • Selected by the FDIC to participate in a “tech sprint” to explore new ways to help banks serve unbanked consumers.

PlayMoolah

Plinqit

TiViTz

Zogo Finance


Photo by SHVETS production

Applause Learning’s Coindexter Club Now Available to Credit Unions Partnered with My CU Services

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My CU Services, provider of technology and payment systems for Credit Unions, recognizes the value that financial literacy programs for kids can bring to a brand.

How do we know? Because the Pennsylvania-based service provider recently announced a partnership with Atlanta-based Applause Learning, creator of the Coindexter Club.

Through this partnership, the Coindexter Club program will be made available to the more than 750 Credit Unions that work with My CU Services.

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The program is targeted toward kids ages 5 to 12 years old, and aims to teach them how to spend, save and manage money in a virtual world that feels much like a video game. Credit Unions that sponsor the Coindexter Club for their members can include their logo within the game on ATMs, send kids a customized birthday card, and offer them branded apparel products.

Applause Learning demonstrated the Coindexter Club at FinovateSpring 2012. Check out the demo video here.

Applause Learning Demos Coindexter Club, a Financial Literacy Program for Kids

ApplauseLearningLogo.jpgNext, Applause Learning introduced the Coindexter Club, a program that gamifies earning, saving, spending, and investing to help kids learn personal finance:

“The Coindexter Club is a financial literacy program for children ages 6 to 12 that includes many dynamic features. The program can be licensed by financial institutions or accessed directly by parents through our simple online subscription process. 

The foundation of the Coindexter Club is the virtual city of Econopolis found at www.Coindexter.com. Econopolis is a game-based virtual world that teaches children how to earn, save, spend, and invest money. The autonomous, non-linear learning environment of Econopolis allows children to learn at their own pace and develop strong financial behaviors that translate seamlessly from the virtual to the real world.”

Product Launched: May 2012
HQ Location: Atlanta, GA
Company Founded: October 2011
Introducing Adrian Lawrence (Creative Director) and Melissa Lawrence (Sales Representative)

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FinovateSpring 2012 Sneak Peek: Part 3

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As promised, this is part 3 of the sneak peek of the companies that will demo at FinovateSpring May 8 and 9 in San Francisco. Each company provided a short summary of the innovation they will debut on stage. In case you missed them, check out Sneak Peek Part 1 and Sneak Peek Part 2.

Don’t miss the opportunity to experience the hottest innovations in financial technology. Get your FinovateSpring ticket here.

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It’s understood that the more customers interact with a rewards program, the more engaged and loyal they become. Redeeming points and receiving value makes them happy. Yet the hard costs and management of those rewards has become prohibitive for financial institutions. 
Access Development will debut PowerDeals, a micro-redemption engine that offers customers valuable rewards for a minimal number of points, resulting in more transactions. PowerDeals will help increase customer loyalty while significantly decreasing program costs and accrual liability for the financial institution.
Innovation type: Communications, marketing, rewards

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Applause Learning is changing the way children learn about money. Their unique new product, The Coindexter Club, presents financial literacy in an innovative, game-based format that keeps children entertained as they learn the core principles of financial management. The Coindexter Club immerses children in the exciting virtual world of Econopolis (found at Coindexter.com) where they are taught to earn, save, spend, and invest money.
Innovation type: Marketing

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BancBox is an infrastructure platform that helps companies build payment services into their web and mobile applications. Based on a simple API-driven approach that allows customers to maintain control of their user experience, BancBox delivers a secure, compliant and integrated way for clients to collect, store and send money from within their applications. 
BancBox also offers a unique service that assists clients in addressing the regulatory complexities of moving money in compliance with state money transmitter laws. As a trusted expert with years of payment operations experience, BancBox has opened over one hundred thousand consumer accounts and processed billions of dollars in payments.
Innovation type: Banking, cards, payments, security

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If you’ve invested in a better airplane; why haven’t you invested in the pilot? Introducing CreditLab— the flight simulator for the retail lending world. 
Focused on credit risk management skills, this dynamic training system requires players to manage their lending portfolios through stormy conditions, such as heavy price competition and an economic recession. Pitted against competitive teams, players must make tough choices, learning to anticipate portfolio management adjustments so that they can stay the course.
Innovation type: Back office, cards, lending

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Blaze Mobile develops innovative mobile commerce, healthcare, banking and advertising solutions that enable secure, convenient, cost-effective transactions and promotions from the mobile device. Utilizing its patented NFC and mobile technology, the Blaze Mobile product suite includes:
    • Mobile Wallet
    • NFC-enabling Payment Stickers
    • Blaze Mobile Advertising Platform that delivers personalized ads and coupons based on customer shopping history, location, interests, gender, and other data
Innovation type: Mobile and tablet, payments, rewards

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More than 15 million people in 100 countries trust Concur to manage their travel and expenses, and save them time. In 2011, Concur acquired TripIt, the leading mobile trip organizer that makes it easy for millions of people to organize and share their travel plans. Together, Concur and TripIt make it possible for companies to use trip data to simplify expense reports and save time. Come find out what that means for you.

Innovation type: Back office, mobile and tablet, online, small business

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moneto is a prepaid mobile wallet powered by MasterCard PayPass technology and created by DeviceFidelity. Using DeviceFidelity’s globally renowned In2Pay microSD solution, moneto’s unique portability and consumer centric approach means greater adoption and rapid penetration.
moneto makes money management easy from start to finish. It’s the simple, secure and elegant way to give users the most from their cash using just their mobile phone. Compatible with both iPhone and Android and accepted at hundreds of thousands of retailers nationwide, moneto is the ultimate virtual wallet.
Innovation type: Banking, cards, mobile, payments, PFM, rewards

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According to a recent report from the National Federation of Independent Businesses (NFIB), cash flow was identified as the highest-priority finance issue affecting small-business owners. Experian’s Business Information Services will demonstrate a new solution that helps small businesses solve this issue by enabling owners and principals to quickly and easily make better decisions across the entire Customer Life Cycle. It is these important decisions that help businesses meet their obligations and often can mean the difference between success or failure.
Innovation type: Small business

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inStream Solutions grew out of a desire to help financial advisors provide better service to their clients. This is the first proactive financial planning software for financial advisors that integrates financial advice and coordinates financial services with a lead generation model. 
inStream Solutions also leverages the knowledge generated by advisors into a best practices resource, provides real-time insight into how advisors use financial products to solve the issues of their affluent clients, and helps advisors understand what is going on within their practice.
Innovation type: Investing, PFM

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Powering Innovation for Commerce — The IP Commerce Platform and Commerce Playlists enable developers to create innovative applications and workflows that incorporate all channels of commerce.
IP Commerce offers the fastest, easiest way to enable commerce services for complex multi-channel applications. With IP Commerce, you can create rich interactions between all parties of a commerce ecosystem (Retailers, ISVs, Acquirers, Processors, Social Networks, Value-Added-Service Providers, etc.).
The world of commerce technology is growing as never before and IP Commerce is at the vanguard.
Innovation type: Payments

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TIO Networks is a cloud based multi-channel bill payment processor serving the largest telecom, wireless, cable and utility bill issuers in North America. TIO enables these companies to provide bill payment services to the population of over 60 million underbanked consumers.  With more than 55,000 physical location endpoints to its bill payment processing network, TIO symbolizes fast, convenient and secure access to expedited payment services.
Innovation type: Back office, mobile, payments

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Increase consumer engagement and drive loyalty with our WattzOn Personal Energy Management Platform. WattzOn provides your consumers with easy-to-use tools that help people use less energy, save money and be green. Personalized recommendations can be enhanced with complementary financial products such as credit cards, savings accounts, home and car loans.
Features include:
    • Apples-to-apples comparisons of home energy use to similar homes
    • Personalized energy saving recommendations
    • Fuel-efficient car savings calculator
    • Automated monitoring with secure connections to 100+ energy utilities
    • Instant home solar savings calculator
Innovation type: Marketing, online, PFM