The kids section of the fintech universe is making headlines as Strive – a U.K.-based challenger bank that helps parents preach financial literacy and practice smart financial behavior with their kids – made good on its acquisition of digital piggy bank GoSave. The company went live with the new functionality today in London.

“We’ve been working with GoSave for a period of time now with some of our clients, and the idea of a youth focused challenger bank kept coming up,” Strive CSO Ivan Muck said. “We see a real gap in the market to build a solution for parents that grows with the child, so it’s not just a debit card, it’s a whole 0-18 proposition that parents can start at any age.”

Strive is presently accepting “expressions of interest” of ahead of a Seedrs crowdfunding campaign “in a few months.” The company has pledged to donate a portion of sales of its digital piggy bank to help support financial literacy through youth charity MyBnk.

California-based GoSave was launched on KickStarter in 2018, and went on to earn recognition as part of VISA’s Everywhere Initiative later that year. The company is also an alum of Techstars Berlin (2019). Check out a profile of GoSave from February from our sister publication, Fintech Futures.

Strive and GoSave aren’t the only kid-friendly fintechs with headlines above the fold of late. Jassby, a Massachusetts-based mobile payments platform for families, kids, and teenagers, has introduced its no monthly fee, virtual debit card for kids.

Courtesy of a partnership with Mastercard, Jassby’s virtual debt card gives kids a contactless and cashless way to spend money raised from chores, allowances, or gifts. The card can be used anywhere contactless payments are accepted via mobile device, and Jassby is offering the card with no fee for the first six months and no fee afterwards as long as the card is used once a month.

As with Strive, Jassby is also taking names for early registration for its “virtual debit card for families.”

“The Virtual Debit Card is another example of putting our customers first and delivering a product that meets a growing need in the market,” Jassby founder and CEO Benny Nachman said. “I started Jassby to prepare my kids for life in the real world and thousands of families have joined us for the same reasons. With continued support, we’re able to empower kids with the hands-on financial experience necessary for today’s new normal.”

Founded in 2018, Jassby scored $5 million in funding in March. The company includes Blumberg Capital and Correlation Ventures among its investors.

Photo by August de Richelieu from Pexels

Short-form video sharing and social network app TikTok and commerce platform Shopify announced a partnership today that will offer Shopify merchants exposure to TikTok’s highly engaged users.

The integration will allow merchants to create and connect their TikTok business account and launch shoppable video ads directly within Shopify. The merchant simply selects the product they’d like to feature in the video and combine their existing imagery or video with a selection of pre-made templates designed for commerce.

“We are delighted to partner with Shopify and provide a channel for their merchants to reach new audiences and drive sales on TikTok,” said Blake Chandlee, Vice President of Global Business Solutions at TikTok. “As social commerce proliferates, retailers are recognizing that TikTok’s creative and highly engaged community sets it apart from other platforms.”

Shopify is using its Shopify Channels to help merchants promote their products using TikTok. Shopify Channels are sales and marketing channels that help merchants to connect with their customers via integrations with social media, entertainment, search platforms, and major marketplaces such as Amazon and Walmart.

“TikTok is one of the world’s fastest growing entertainment platforms with over 100 million highly engaged users in the U.S. alone,” said Satish Kanwar, Vice President of Product at Shopify. “The TikTok channel means Shopify merchants—even those without a strong TikTok following of their own yet—can connect with these new audiences using content that feels authentic and genuine to the TikTok experience.”

As part of the partnership, Shopify and TikTok have teamed up to allow users to spotlight their favorite Black-owned businesses using the hashtag #ShopBlack. The campaign, which runs from November 10 to 15, will highlight products from more than 40 Shopify merchants.

Shopify’s TikTok channel is now available in the U.S. The company plans to launch it in additional markets throughout North America, Europe, and Southeast Asia in early 2021.

Photo by Olivier Bergeron on Unsplash

Ant Group has set the price for its shares of its dual IPO today, and it is shaping up to be the largest public offering to-date, coming in at $34.5 billion.

The IPO will be spread equally through 1.67 billion new shares issued on Hong Kong’s Hang Seng, which is expected to raise $17.24 billion (HK$133.65 billion), and 1.67 billion new shares issued on Shanghai’s Star Market, which is expected to raise $17.23 billion (¥115 billion).

Ant will debut on November 5 on Hong Kong’s Hang Seng. The company has not disclosed a date for its planned offering on Shanghai’s Star Market.

Ant’s new valuation is anticipated to top $313 billion, up from an estimated value of $218 billion earlier this year. According to Statista, this valuation, when compared to U.S. megabanks, sits only below JP Morgan Chase, which has a market capitalization of $434 billion.

The anticipated $34.5 billion raise is a record amount, breaking the previous highest IPO set when oil company Saudi Aramco went public at $29.4 billion earlier this year. Ant’s parent company Alibaba holds the record for the second-highest IPO when it listed on the New York Stock Exchange in 2014 and raised $24 billion. 

Alibaba plans to maintain its 33% share in Ant Group by having its subsidiary Zhejiang Tmall Technology purchase 730 million shares in the company.

As we reported earlier this year, Ant’s double-listing is intentionally avoiding U.S. markets. This is not only because of geopolitical tensions, but also to take advantage of new innovations in both Hong Kong and Shanghai markets, which offer weighted voting rights and offer more market-driven pricing than other domestic exchanges.

Ant was founded in 2014 and has more than 1.3 billion active annual users. Simon Hu is CEO.